Ms. Liddi
Chemistry
November 25, 2014
The Element Krypton
The element Krypton is not widely known for its actual qualities, but mainly known as a rock which weakens superman in the comic world. Although Krypton is featured as the Man of
Steel's home planet and his ultimate weakness; but the two are totally different. Unlike kryptonite, krypton is one of the noble gases, not a solid. It is colorless, odorless, and tasteless gas which has no affect on anything. This element is one of the rarest gases and the earths atmosphere contains about 0.0001% of it.
After isolating the element helium, William Ramsay and Morris William Travers found the unthinkable. By liquefying the element argon, they found traces of a much lighter gases.
Ramsay and Travers discovered the extraordinary element on May 30, 1898 and named it
"Krypton". It is derived from the Greek word 'Kryptos' which means 'hidden' because it was difficult for the scientists to isolate the element. Krypton is found in period 4 group 18 on the periodic table. They were able to conclude that krypton's atomic number is 36 and has a mass of
83.80. This element has 26 isotopes and 2.8 times as dense as air.
Ramsay previously discovered the elements Helium and Argon and concluded that many more elements must be in the same group. Although the much of the earths atmosphere is oxygen and nitrogen, they were able to find much more gases by allowing liquid air to evaporate. With this method and the help of Travers, they were able to discover the elements xenon and neon.
Krypton is an interesting element and can be used as photographic flashes which are used in high speed photography. Krypton can also be used for energy-saving fluorescent lights and be combined with other elements to make greenish-yellow luminous signs. Krypton was once thought to be completely inert, but now