The chemistry of krypton

Krypton is the only noble gas other than xenon to give rise to isolable compounds in macroscopic amounts, although the chemistry of krypton is presently limited to the +2 oxidation state. The strong oxidant-fluorinator properties and thermal instabilities of krypton(11) compounds have posed considerable challenges to determining the extent to which the chemistries of krypton(II) and xenon(11) are analogous. Krypton(11) compounds possessing Kr-F, Kr-O and Kr-N bonds have been prepared and structurally characterized by X-ray crystallography, spectroscopic means (NMR, vibrational, Mossbauer), and electron structure calculations. The strong oxidative fluorinators, KrF2 and KrF+, have found application in the syntheses of new examples of fluorides and oxide fluorides of main-group, transition metal, lanthanide, and actinide elements in their highest oxidation states. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.