CAIE IGCSE Chemistry
8.5 Noble gases
Notes
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Describe the Group VIII noble gases as unreactive, monatomic gases and
explain this in terms of electronic configuration
● Group VIII (8) elements are known as the noble gases
● The noble gases are monatomic gases, meaning the molecules only consist of
1 atom
○ E.g. Argon (Ar), Neon (Ne) and Krypton (Kr)
● Group VIII elements are inert, meaning they are unreactive, due to the
electron configuration of the noble gases.
○ The noble gases have full outer shells of electrons, so have 8 electrons
in their outermost shell, excluding helium which has 2.
○ I.e. The electron configuration of Argon is 2, 8, 8
○ This means that the noble gases are very stable and unreactive (since
they don’t need to lose/gain electrons to achieve full electron
configuration).
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