Our Progress in Xenon Gas Chemistry

Xenon gas is present in atmospheric air, but unfortunately in a very low amounts. It is possible to say that average room have about 2-5 ml of xenon. This gas was discovered by studying of evaporation of liquid gases carried by William Ramsay. After evaporation of liquid atmospheric gas, which contains helium, hydrogen, neon, oxygen, nitrogen and argon a very small amount of liquid remaining was left in cry vessel. This liquid was krypton gas, but after evaporation a very tiny amount of other gas was left. This gas was named as xenon. This gas emitted very unusual white light with full spectrum, from orange to violet. This light emittance activated by electrical discharge can be explained by very big electron cloud of xenon, which contains 54 electrons.

Very wide spectrum of xenon gas emittance, from infra-red to ultraviolet, activated by electrical discharge in demand in many industrial applications. Xenon gas is used for manufacturing of high pressure lamps. The high pressure lamps are used for production of extremely intensive full spectrum light, from infra-red to ultraviolet. This light is used in orthochromatic fabric and paint industry.

Another interesting application of xenon gas was discovered recently in completely new research field. Xenon atoms have hydrophobic properties and easily can bind with hydrophobic parts of protein molecules. This binding can take place only at pressures of more than 70 psi. The structure of xenon molecule is very electron rich and therefore these atoms can significantly change x-ray diffraction pattern of protein crystals without significant changes of its molecular structure. This fact now widely used in protein crystallography as one of technique of solving protein structure. 57 protein structures were solved with xenon atoms. Coordinates for all these structures are submitted into PDB data bank and everybody can look through these beautiful results. For convenience we prepare all pictures (normal and stereo view) of all xenon binding sites available in PDB data bank now.

Xenon atoms significantly interact with x-ray. As an inert gas, xenon is absolutely harmless for human body and therefore this gas can be used as a diagnostic reagent for x-ray study in diagnostic medicine.

In high concentrations xenon can act as anaestheticby inhibiting of membrane calcium pumps. Last few decades xenon considered as potential candidate for surgery as an anaesthetic agent due to significant reduction of production price with consequent anaesthetic price of about 1300 GBP per hour of deep anaesthesia.

You can read more about noble gas xenon applications on the author website. For your knowledges you can read useful information about xenon binding places in proteins: 2fic protein structure prepared by author.