What idea lead to the discovery of Xenon fluorides?

Answer

To answer the question "What idea led to the discovery of Xenon fluorides?", we can break down the explanation into clear steps:

### Step-by-Step Solution:

1. **Background on Xenon and its Inertness**:
- Xenon is a noble gas, which means it has a complete valence shell and is generally unreactive. This inertness posed a challenge for chemists in terms of finding compounds that xenon could form.

2. **Neil Bartlett's Experiment**:
- The key figure in the discovery of xenon fluorides was Neil Bartlett. He conducted experiments to explore the reactivity of xenon with various compounds.

3. **Reaction with Platinum Hexafluoride (PtF6)**:
- Bartlett reacted xenon (Xe) with platinum hexafluoride (PtF6). This reaction produced an orange-yellow solid, which was identified as xenon fluorides.

4. **Comparison with Oxygen**:
- Bartlett recalled that when he reacted oxygen (O2) with PtF6, he obtained O2+ and PtF6-. The formation of these ions was similar to what he observed with xenon.

5. **Ionization Energies**:
- The idea that led to this discovery was based on the observation that the ionization enthalpies of xenon and oxygen are quite close. This similarity suggested that xenon could behave similarly to oxygen in terms of reactivity with PtF6.

6. **Conclusion**:
- Thus, the idea that the ionization energies of xenon and oxygen were comparable allowed Bartlett to hypothesize that xenon could form compounds, leading to the successful synthesis of xenon fluorides.

### Summary:
The discovery of xenon fluorides was primarily based on Neil Bartlett's innovative approach of treating xenon as a reactive species similar to oxygen, due to their comparable ionization enthalpies, which enabled the formation of xenon fluorides when reacted with platinum hexafluoride.