Xenon (Xe)
Xenon is the 54th element, a noble gas in the p-block. Its standard atomic weight is 131.29.
Xenon
131.29
What the table records
- Atomic number
- 54
- Standard atomic weight
- 131.29
- Group
- 18
- Period
- 5
- Block
- p-block
- Category
- Noble gas
- [Kr] 4d10 5s2 5p6
- Valence electrons
- 8
- Typical valence
- 0
- Van der Waals radius
- 2.16 Å
- Covalent radius
- 1.4 Å
Molecules containing xenon
How to read these numbers
The standard atomic weight is an average over the isotopes as they occur naturally, which is why it is rarely a whole number. It is the figure a molar mass calculation uses. Work in mass spectrometry wants the monoisotopic mass of a single isotope instead, which is a different number.
The two radii are not the same measurement. The covalent radius is half the distance between two bonded atoms of the element; the van der Waals radius is how close a non-bonded atom gets before repulsion takes over, and is always the larger. Space-filling models are drawn with the second, ball-and-stick models with the first — which is why the same molecule looks so different in the two.