Which noble gas would be expected to show the largest deviations from ideal gas behaviors, He, Ne, Ar, Kr, or Xe?

Would it be He? I'm not sure how one would determine this.

Xe would have the largest deviation, for two reasons: (1) The atoms are larger. (2) Xe also has a deeper "potential well" which implies stronger interatomic attraction.

Thankyou.

Yes, helium (He) would be expected to show the largest deviations from ideal gas behavior among the noble gases. The reason for this is that helium is the lightest noble gas with the smallest atomic radius, and it has the fewest electrons.

According to the principles of the kinetic molecular theory, which describes the behavior of ideal gases, ideal gases are composed of particles that have negligible volume, do not interact with each other, and have elastic collisions. However, as helium atoms are very small and have low intermolecular forces, their behavior deviates from this ideal gas behavior.

In the case of helium, its small size allows it to easily escape from a gas sample because its low mass and high kinetic energy enable its particles to move quickly enough to overcome intermolecular attractions. As a result, helium is often referred to as a "real gas" since it deviates noticeably from ideal gas behavior under ordinary conditions.

The other noble gases, such as neon (Ne), argon (Ar), krypton (Kr), and xenon (Xe), have larger atomic radii, higher atomic masses, and more electrons, which result in stronger intermolecular attractions and smaller deviations from ideal gas behavior compared to helium.

It's important to note that while helium shows the largest deviations among the noble gases, all noble gases show some deviations from ideal gas behavior at high pressures and low temperatures.

To determine which noble gas would show the largest deviations from ideal gas behavior, we need to consider the characteristics of an ideal gas and the properties of each noble gas. An ideal gas follows certain assumptions, including no intermolecular forces and negligible volume of gas particles.

The deviation from ideal gas behavior is mainly influenced by two factors: intermolecular forces and particle size. The stronger the intermolecular forces and the larger the particle size, the greater the deviation from ideal gas behavior.

Comparing the noble gases He, Ne, Ar, Kr, and Xe, we find that they follow the trend of increasing atomic size with Ar, Kr, and Xe having larger atoms compared to He and Ne. Additionally, the strength of intermolecular forces increases with increasing atomic size due to the increase in the number of electrons.

Therefore, the noble gas expected to show the largest deviations from ideal gas behavior would be Xenon (Xe). Xe has the largest atomic size among the given options and the strongest intermolecular forces. These factors contribute to a greater deviation from ideal gas behavior compared to the smaller noble gases like Helium (He), which has the least deviation from ideal gas behavior.

So, in conclusion, Xe is the noble gas that would be expected to show the largest deviations from ideal gas behavior.