14 Facts About Krypton

Krypton is a chemical element with the symbol Kr and atomic number 36.

Krypton light has many spectral lines, and krypton plasma is useful in bright, high-powered gas lasers, each of which resonates and amplifies a single spectral line.

Krypton was discovered in Britain in 1898 by William Ramsay, a Scottish chemist, and Morris Travers, an English chemist, in residue left from evaporating nearly all components of liquid air.

Krypton is characterized by several sharp emission lines the strongest being green and yellow.

Krypton is highly volatile and does not stay in solution in near-surface water, but Kr has been used for dating old groundwater.

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Krypton is usually found in the +0 oxidation state, typical of noble gases.

Krypton is used in some photographic flashes for high speed photography.

Krypton gas is combined with mercury to make luminous signs that glow with a bright greenish-blue light.

Krypton is mixed with argon in energy efficient fluorescent lamps, reducing the power consumption, but reducing the light output and raising the cost.

Krypton is used to fill incandescent lamps to reduce filament evaporation and allow higher operating temperatures.

Krypton produces much higher light power than neon in the red spectral line region, and for this reason, red lasers for high-power laser light-shows are often krypton lasers with mirrors that select the red spectral line for laser amplification and emission, rather than the more familiar helium-neon variety, which could not achieve the same multi-watt outputs.

Krypton-83 has application in magnetic resonance imaging for imaging airways.

Krypton-85 is a medium lived fission product and thus escapes from spent fuel when the cladding is removed.

Krypton is used occasionally as an insulating gas between window panes.