Xenon tetrafluoride

Xenon tetrafluoride (XeF₄) is a colorless crystalline compound of xenon and fluorine. Its four xenon–fluorine bonds form a square-planar molecular structure.

Molecular geometry: The three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in a molecule. XeF₄’s four fluorine atoms occupy the corners of a square around xenon.
Neil Bartlett: A British chemist who demonstrated the first synthesis of a noble-gas compound in 1962. His work on xenon fluorides helped establish the chemical context for XeF₄.
Xenon: A heavy, colorless noble gas with atomic number 54. Xenon is the central atom whose oxidation state is +4 in XeF₄.
Fluorinating agent: A reagent that introduces fluorine atoms into another chemical substance. XeF₄ serves as a selective source of fluorine in chemical synthesis.
Xenon–fluorine reaction: The direct reaction of xenon with fluorine that produces xenon fluorides under controlled conditions. Heating xenon and fluorine in suitable proportions can yield XeF₄.
Valence-shell electron-pair repulsion theory: A model that predicts molecular shapes by treating electron domains around a central atom as mutually repelling. It predicts the octahedral electron-domain arrangement behind XeF₄’s square-planar shape.
Noble gas compounds: Chemical compounds containing elements from group 18 of the periodic table. XeF₄ belongs to the compounds that refuted absolute noble-gas inertness.
Fluorine: A highly reactive halogen with atomic number 9 and the greatest electronegativity of any element. Fluorine’s strong oxidizing power enables it to form bonds with xenon.
Organofluorine chemistry: The chemistry of compounds containing carbon–fluorine bonds. XeF₄ can fluorinate organic substrates, forming carbon–fluorine bonds.
Single-crystal X-ray diffraction: A method that determines a crystal’s atomic structure from X-ray diffraction by a single crystal. Diffraction measurements establish XeF₄’s crystalline arrangement and molecular geometry.

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