Question

many reactive chemicals are stored in containers filled with Argon gas for safekeeping what about Argon's atomic structure makes it safe to store reactive chemicals in?​

Answer 1

Answer:

Argon has 8 valence electrons making it non reactive.

Explanation:

Reactive chemicals are store in containers filled with Argon gas because the argon gas is non reactive. This is true because the argon gas has completely filled octet structure.

This can further be explained by writing the electronic configuration of argon.

The electronic configuration of argon is given below:

Ar (18) => 1s² 2s²2p⁶ 3s²3p⁶

Valence electron => 3s²3p⁶ = 2 + 6 = 8

From the above illustration, we can see that the outermost shell (i.e 3s²3p⁶) is having 8 electrons indicating that it is completely filled as the maximum number of electrons any shell can accommodate outside the first shell is 8 electrons. Thus, argon has 8 valence electrons ( i.e electrons in the outermost shell) and hence it is non reactive as the outermost shell is completely filled.