Krypton is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36. A colorless noble gas, krypton occurs in trace amounts in the atmosphere, is isolated by fractionating liquefied air, and is often used with other rare gases in fluorescent lamps. Krypton is inert for most practical purposes but it is known to form compounds with fluorine. Krypton can also form clathrates with water when atoms of it are trapped in a lattice of the water molecules.

Notable characteristics

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Krypton, a so-called noble gas due to its very low chemical reactivity, is characterized by a brilliant green and orange spectral signature. It is one of the products of uranium fission. Solidified krypton is white and crystalline with a face-centered cubic crystal structure which is a common property of all "rare gases".

History

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Krypton (Greek κρυπτός meaning "hidden") was discovered in Great Britain, 1898 by William Ramsay and Morris Travers in residue left from evaporating nearly all components of liquid air. In 1960 an international agreement defined the metre in terms of light emitted from a krypton isotope. This agreement replaced the longstanding standard metre located in Paris which was a metal bar made of a platinum-iridium alloy (the bar was originally estimated to be one ten millionth of a quadrant of the earth's polar circumference). In October 1983 the krypton standard was in turn replaced by the Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (International Bureau of Weights and Measures). A metre is now defined as the distance that light travels in a vacuum during 1/299,792,458 s. The fictional planet Krypton, home of the popular comic book and movie hero Superman, was named after this element, as is Superman's weakness, Kryptonite.

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