Discovery Information
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Who: Sir William Ramsey, M.W. Travers |
When: 1898 |
Where: Great Britain |
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Name Origin
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Greek: kryptos (hidden). |
"Krypton" in different languages. |
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Sources
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Forms around 1 millionth of the atmosphere. It is obtained from production of liquid air.
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It is one of the products of uranium fission.
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Abundance
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Universe: 0.04 ppm (by weight) |
Atmosphere: 1.14 ppm |
Earth's Crust: 1 x 10-5 ppm
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Seawater: 2.1 x 10-4 ppm
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Uses
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Used in fluorescent bulbs, flashbulbs, and as a wavelength standard. |
One major use of krypton is the krypton fluorine laser. Certain amounts of energy are added to force krypton gas to react with fluorine gas to become KrF excited state complex.
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The compound will decompose once the energy supply stops. During the decomposition process, the excess energy stored in the
excited state complex will be emitted in the form of strong ultraviolet laser radiation.
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History
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Krypton was discovered in Great Britain in 1898 by Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers in residue left from evaporating nearly all components of liquid air.
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