Khriachtchev Leonid, Isokoski Karoliina, Cohen Arik, Räsänen Markku, Gerber R Benny
Laboratory of Physical Chemistry, P.O. Box 55, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland.
J Am Chem Soc. 2008 May 14;130(19):6114-8. doi: 10.1021/ja077835v. Epub 2008 Apr 12.
A novel noble-gas compound, HXeOXeH, is identified using IR spectroscopy, and it seems to be the smallest known neutral molecule with two noble-gas atoms. HXeOXeH is prepared using, for example, UV photolysis of water in solid xenon and subsequent annealing at 40-45 K. The experimental observations are fully supported by extensive quantum chemical calculations. A large energy release of 8.3 eV is computationally predicted for the decomposition of HXeOXeH into the 2Xe + H2O global energy minimum. HXeOXeH may represent a first step toward the possible preparation of (Xe-O)n chains and it may be relevant to the terrestrial "missing xenon" problem.
