It's 2019. We want our cell phones fast, our computers faster and screens so crisp they rival a morning in the mountains. We're a digital society, and blurry photos from potato-cameras won't cut it for the masses. Physicists, ...
General Physics
Aug 02, 2019
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Inert gases like argon typically do not form chemical bonds except under extreme conditions, such as the icy cold of outer space. As shared in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, an international team of ...
Analytical Chemistry
Jul 26, 2019
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An EPFL study has prompted scientists to rethink a standard approach used to calculate the velocity of gas exchange between mountain streams and the atmosphere. Research conducted in streams in Vaud and Valais indicate that ...
Earth Sciences
Mar 19, 2019
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Researchers of the Laboratory for Attosecond Physics at LMU and the Max Planck Institute for Quantum Optics have developed a microscope that tracks the motion of electrons.
Optics & Photonics
Mar 08, 2019
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A critical part of one of the largest recent particle physics experiments was developed in Brazil. The Arapuca is a light detector to be installed in the Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE), a project seeking to discover ...
General Physics
Feb 20, 2019
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An experiment at the Department of Energy's Fermilab has made a significant advance in the detection of neutrinos that hide themselves at lower energies.
General Physics
Jan 09, 2019
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33
As a non-noble metal, copper oxidizes more easily to a positive valence (Cu+ or Cu2+) than same-family elements Au or Ag. In general, this chemical property is mainly determined by electron structure. Can we change the chemical ...
Materials Science
Dec 21, 2018
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The age of the water in the world's oceans is critical for understanding ocean circulation, especially for the transport of gases from the atmosphere into the deep ocean. Researchers from Heidelberg University recently used ...
Earth Sciences
Dec 21, 2018
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33
Science is poised to take a "quantum leap" as more mysteries of how atoms behave and interact with each other are unlocked.
General Physics
Oct 11, 2018
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When crane operators at CERN lowered a custom 7.5-metre thermometer into one of the prototypes for the planned Deep Underground Neutrino Experiment (DUNE) earlier this month, it looked like a silver straw sliding into a giant ...
General Physics
Aug 27, 2018
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Argon /ˈɑrɡɒn/ is a chemical element represented by the symbol Ar. Argon has atomic number 18 and is the third element in group 18 of the periodic table (noble gases). Argon is the third most common gas in the Earth's atmosphere, at 0.93%, making it more common than carbon dioxide. Nearly all of this argon is radiogenic argon-40 derived from the decay of potassium-40 in the Earth's crust. In the universe, argon-36 is by far the most common argon isotope, being the preferred argon isotope produced by stellar nucleosynthesis in supernovas.
The name "argon" is derived from the Greek word αργον meaning "lazy" or "the inactive one", a reference to the fact that the element undergoes almost no chemical reactions. The complete octet (eight electrons) in the outer atomic shell makes argon stable and resistant to bonding with other elements. Its triple point temperature of 83.8058 K is a defining fixed point in the International Temperature Scale of 1990.
Argon is produced industrially by the fractional distillation of liquid air. Argon is mostly used as an inert shielding gas in welding and other high-temperature industrial processes where ordinarily non-reactive substances become reactive; for example, an argon atmosphere is used in graphite electric furnaces to prevent the graphite from burning. Argon gas also has uses in incandescent and fluorescent lighting, and other types of gas discharge tubes. Argon makes a distinctive blue-green gas laser.
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