The argon-40/ potassium-40 ratio is used in dating igneous rocks.Ĭryosurgery procedures such as cryoablation use liquified argon to destroy cancer cells. Argon-39, with a half life of 269 years, has been used for a number of applications, primarily ice core and ground water dating. In microelectronics, argon ions are used for sputtering.įinally, there are a number of miscellaneous uses. Blue argon lasers are used in surgery to weld arteries, destroy tumors, and to correct eye defects. It is used in plasma globes and calorimetry in experimental particle physics. Argon is also used in technical scuba diving to inflate a dry suit, because it is inert and has low thermal conductivity.Īrgon is also used for the specific way it ionizes and emits light. It is used for thermal insulation in energy efficient windows. The next most common reason for using argon is its low thermal conductivity. The gas is stored at high pressure, and the expansion of the gas cools the seeker. Used to cool the seeker head of the US Air Force version of the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile.In the pharmaceutical industry to top off bottles of intravenous drug preparations (for example intravenous paracetamol), again displacing oxygen and therefore prolonging the drug's shelf-life.In winemaking to top off barrels, displacing oxygen and thus preventing the wine from turning to vinegar during the aging process.
To keep open bottles of wine from oxidizing, and in a number of dispensing units and keeper cap systems.By museum conservators to protect old materials or documents, which are prone to gradual oxidation in the presence of air.As a protective atmosphere for growing silicon and germanium crystals, and in partial pressure heat treat furnaces.As a non-reactive blanket in the processing of titanium and other reactive elements,.As the gas of choice for the plasma used in ICP spectroscopy.For extinguishing fires where damage to equipment is to be avoided (see photo).As an inert gas shield in many forms of welding, including metal inert gas welding and tungsten inert gas welding.As a fill gas in incandescent lighting, because argon will not react with the filament of light bulbs even at high temperatures.The bulk of argon applications arise simply because it is inert and relatively cheap. The other noble gases (except helium) are produced this way as well, but argon is the most plentiful since it has the highest concentration in the atmosphere. Argon is inexpensive since it is a byproduct of the production of liquid oxygen and liquid nitrogen, both of which are used on a large industrial scale. Other noble gases would probably work as well in most of these applications, but argon is by far the cheapest. The electronic properties (ionization and/or the emission spectrum) are necessary.In particular, argon is the cheapest alternative when diatomic nitrogen is not sufficiently inert. There are several different reasons why argon is used in particular applications: The symbol for argon is now Ar, but up until 1957 it was A. Argon became the first member of the noble gases to be discovered. Each observed new lines in the color spectrum of air but were unable to identify the element responsible for the lines. Argon was also encountered in 1882 through independent research of H.F. Theoretical calculations on computers have shown several argon compounds that should be stable but for which no synthesis routes are currently known.Īrgon (Greek αργόν meaning "the lazy one," in reference to its chemical inactivity) was suspected to be present in air by Henry Cavendish in 1785 but was not discovered until 1894 by Lord Rayleigh and Sir William Ramsay in an experiment in which they removed all of the oxygen and nitrogen from a sample of air. Although the neutral ground-state chemical compounds of argon are presently limited to HArF, argon can form clathrates with water when atoms of it are trapped in a lattice of the water molecules. For example, the creation of argon hydrofluoride (HArF), a metastable compound of argon with fluorine and hydrogen, has been reported by researchers at the University of Helsinki in 2000. Argon is inert under most conditions and forms no confirmed stable compounds at room temperature.Īlthough argon is a noble gas, it has been found to have the capability of forming some compounds. This highly stable chemical element is colorless, odorless, tasteless and nontoxic in both its liquid and gaseous forms. Argon has approximately the same solubility in water as oxygen gas and is 2.5 times more soluble in water than nitrogen gas.