Talk:Xenon
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Xenon is a former good article candidate. There are suggestions below for which areas need improvement to satisfy the good article criteria. Once the objections are addressed, the article can be renominated as a good article. If you disagree with the objections, you can seek a review.
Date of review: 17th July 2006 |
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Article changed over to new Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements format by maveric149. Elementbox converted 16:00, 5 July 2005 by Femto (previous revision was that of 10:55, 11 June 2005).
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[edit] Information Sources
Some of the text in this entry was rewritten from Los Alamos National Laboratory - Xenon. Additional text was taken directly from USGS Periodic Table - Xenon, from the Elements database 20001107 (via dict.org), Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (via dict.org) and WordNet (r) 1.7 (via dict.org). Data for the table was obtained from the sources listed on the main page and Wikipedia:WikiProject Elements but was reformatted and converted into SI units.
[edit] Talk
I'm surprised that this article makes no mention of Xe-135 poisoning in fission reactors. Xe-135, one of the transient products of U-235 fission, does an extremely good job of absorbing the neutrons needed to sustain a fission reaction. Working around this is an important factor in reactor design and operation.
But my nuclear engineering knowledge is a little too rusty for me to be a really definitive source here... The effect is mentioned in: http://www.physicstoday.com/vol-55/iss-10/p42.html
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Probably because it is too specific a nuclear reactor issue.
[edit] Fission discussion
I am not sure why the section on fission was written in that way. I just had to change it - first, the article mentioned Xe-131, and other isotopes are produced from fission of U-238 and Pu-244. While that is true, they are produced, the "important" fissile materials are really U-235 and Pu-239, and the "important" xenons produced are the radioactive Xe-131m, Xe-133, Xe-133m, and Xe-135.
[edit] Hyperpolarized Xe
Actually, hyperpolarized xenon can be used for NMR spectroscopy as well as MRI. Literature abounds.
[edit] Hanging upside down
A complicating danger is that xenon is heavier than air, and in fact too heavy for the lungs to expel unassisted.
I encountered this chastisement several times when reading about xenon inhalation. I believe it is a myth with no proof behind it. To quote Steven B. Harris, M.D. on sci.physics :
- Sorry, but this is incorrect. The forces of mixing caused by gas inhalation and exhalation in normal lungs are HUGE. More than enough to stir up any mix of mere gases, even when one is 5 times heavier than air, as in SF6. Heck, I've done fluoroscopy of living dogs being ventilated with oxygen while their lungs were full of *liquid fluorocarbon,* which has twice the density of water, and several thousand times the density of air. The mixing is still excellent, and the bubble jets get all the way to the ends of the airways with every breath (and the dogs are fine). An inert gas like xenon will simply be mixed up and purged in a breath or two (xenon has been successfully used as a gas anaesthetic). If it has enough concentration to produce an anaesthetic effect before then, you'll feel it. And you can always asphyxiate yourself with it. But on the whole, xenon is no more, and no less dangerous than nitrous oxide.
If you think about it, our lungs would pool with heavier CO2, and much heavier water vapour, if they were that weak. I think the advice about bending over should be reworded to indicate it is a common misbelief. A problem arises though. Do we strive for accuracy, or to keep people ignorantly safe? Splarka 09:09, 10 Apr 2005 (UTC)
- Accuracy. --Andrew 09:37, Apr 10, 2005 (UTC)
- Water vapor is not heavier than oxygen or nitrogen (MW 18 versus 32 and 28 respectively). CO2 (MW 44) is heavier than O2 and N2, but not by a huge amount. Xe is considerably heavier than any of these at MW 131, however, as has been stated by others, the mixing in the lungs is good enough to expel it. Xe is similar to the other noble gases in that it is a simple asphyxiant. Xe and the other noble gases are not similar to Nitrous Oxide.Badocter 17:19, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Isotope error?
How can Xe-136 decay to Ba-136 by beta decay when the atomic number of barium is 2 higher? Should that be double beta decay or something similar? Ken Arromdee 03:34, 26 September 2005 (UTC)
- I cant' find a source to verify what it is as all the sources I can find say Xe136 is a stable isotope.[1] With a half life of 200000000000000000000 years that is stated in the current version of this article, less than 1 part per billion of this stuff would have disappeared from a sample in the time that has elapsed since the big bang happened.Badocter 17:47, 1 July 2006 (UTC)
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- The sources at talk:isotopes of xenon all set a lower limit, at some 10^21 a. Femto 13:14, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Depletion
Deleted concern about depleting Xenon. The total atmosphere mass is 5.1480 x 1018 kg. If Xenon is one part per 20 million (by weight?), then there is 250 billion kilograms of Xenon in the air. More if the concentration is by volume. pstudier 23:41, 25 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] Metallic Xenon
From the current article: "Using tens of gigapascals of pressure, metallic xenon has been made" I can not find a source for metallic xenon. I have found several citable sources for xenon-metal cmplexes with gold and mercury -- perhaps that was what was meant in the article. I have not found information for synthesis methods of these compoundsBadocter 08:24, 2 July 2006 (UTC)
- I added a reference, and slightly reworded the sentence. The reference is in relation to using high pressure diamond anvils to force xenon into metallic crystalline phases. They were actually hoping that it would form a compound with iron they also had in the press, but, it didn't. Phidauex 17:09, 11 July 2006 (UTC)
[edit] GA nomination
Some things I think are wrong with this article:
- The lead section is far too short. According to WP:LEAD, the lead section should be able to stand alone as a concise overview of the topic (see WP:LEAD).
- The fourth reference just says "Link".
- The History and Occurance sections could do with expansion.
- Applications could be expanded considerably, replacing bullet points with subsections. Unless there are wikipedia articles already concerning those applications, that is. This won't stop it becoming a GA but it will stand in the way of FA status.
- The article definitely needs more references for everything.
-- Run! 09:17, 17 July 2006 (UTC)
