The noble gases have closed-shell electronic configuration and are monoatomic gases under normal conditions. The low boiling points of the lighter noble gases are due to weak dispersion forces between the atoms and the absence of other interatomic interactions.
The direct reaction of xenon with fluorine leads to a series of compounds with oxidation numbers + 2, + 4 and + 6. XeF4 reacts violently with water to give XeO3. The compounds ofxenon exhibit rich stereochemistry and their geometries can be deduced considering the total number of electron pairs in the valence shell.
XeF4 and XeF6 are expected to be
(a) oxidising
(b) reducing
(c) unreactive
(d) strongly basic
