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I've seen so many compounds containing xenon, and xenon was mostly the central atom, and if we had 2 xenons they would never bond directly to each other. I was curious if it is possible to have for example 2 xenons in a compound that are bonded directly to each other?

User OLas
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Final answer:

Two xenon atoms do not typically bond directly to each other in a compound due to the stable electronic configuration of xenon as a noble gas. Compounds like xenon difluoride and xenon tetrafluoride involve xenon bonding to fluorine or oxygen instead.

Step-by-step explanation:

The possibility of two xenon atoms bonding directly to each other in a compound is highly unlikely due to the full outer shells of noble gases like xenon, which makes them generally unreactive. Stable compounds of xenon, like xenon difluoride (XeF2), xenon tetrafluoride (XeF4), and xenon hexafluoride (XeF6), typically involve reactions with other elements such as fluorine or oxygen.

These compounds involve the central xenon atom bonding to several atoms of another element, not to another xenon atom. The distinct properties of noble gases such as their electronic configuration explain why atoms bind together to form molecules and predict the three-dimensional structures of the resulting compounds as well as the energies and other properties of the bonds themselves.

User Jonnel
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