Noble gases have a reputation for being unreactive, inert elements, but more than 60 years ago Neil Bartlett demonstrated the first way to bond xenon. He created XePtF6, an orange-yellow solid.

Argon is part of a group of elemental gases known as noble gases. Each of the gases in this group consists of atoms whose outermost “shell” of electrons is fully occupied (helium, neon, krypton, xenon ...