Description
⌕ Enlarge Image
Krypton is a noble gas that is colorless, tasteless, and odorless in its natural gaseous state. As a noble gas, krypton has low reactivity characteristics. Krypton has an atomic weight of 83.798, a melting point of - 251.25 °F, and a boiling point of - 244.12 °F. Some common uses of krypton include: as a component with argon for florescent lights, as a component in flash lamps for high speed photography, and a component in the krypton fluoride laser for nuclear fusion research.
Isolation
Krypton is only present in nature in gaseous form. The only method that is used to isolate pure krypton is fractional distillation of the air.
⌕ Enlarge Image
Krypton is present in the earth’s atmosphere at a concentration of approximately 1 ppm. Liquid air fractional distillation is used not only for krypton, but for other components in the air as well including other noble gases. The principle of fractional distillation separation uses the different boiling points of the elements in the air to separate them. Liquid air fractional distillation is not usually performed on a small scale laboratory basis; industrial distillation is the most common form of liquid air fractional distillation.
During the krypton isolation process, the air is fed into a distillation column on a continual basis. The different processes of heating, cooling, and condensing, using liquid outlets and chambers to capture the isolated elements is what separates all of the gases that are in the earth’s atmosphere. Isolated krypton is extracted out as a gas, and it is then stored in its pure form in pressurized cylinders.