Editing Noble gas (section)

===Electron configuration===
{{Further|Noble gas configuration}}
Like other groups, the members of this [[Group (periodic table)|family]] show patterns in its [[electron configuration]], especially the outermost shells resulting in trends in chemical behavior:

{| class="wikitable" style="white-space:nowrap;"
|-
!''[[Atomic number|Z]]'' !! [[Chemical element|Element]] !! Electrons per [[Electron shell|shell]]
|-
| 2 || [[helium]] || 2
|-
| 10 || [[neon]] || 2, 8
|-
| 18 || [[argon]] || 2, 8, 8
|-
| 36 || [[krypton]] || 2, 8, 18, 8
|-
| 54 || [[xenon]] || 2, 8, 18, 18, 8
|-
| 86 || [[radon]] || 2, 8, 18, 32, 18, 8
|-
| 118 || [[oganesson]] || 2, 8, 18, 32, 32, 18, 8<br/>(predicted)
|}

The noble gases have full valence [[electron shells]]. [[Valence electron]]s are the outermost [[electron]]s of an atom and are normally the only electrons that participate in [[chemical bond]]ing. Atoms with full valence electron shells are extremely [[Stable nuclide|stable]] and therefore do not tend to form [[chemical bond]]s and have little tendency to [[Ion|gain or lose electrons]].<ref>{{harvnb|Ozima|2002|p=35}}</ref> However, heavier noble gases such as radon are held less firmly together by [[electromagnetic force]] than lighter noble gases such as helium, making it easier to remove outer electrons from heavy noble gases.

As a result of a full shell, the noble gases can be used in conjunction with the [[electron configuration]] notation to form the ''noble gas notation''. To do this, the nearest noble gas that precedes the element in question is written first, and then the electron configuration is continued from that point forward. For example, the electron notation of
[[phosphorus]] is {{nowrap|1s<sup>2</sup> 2s<sup>2</sup> 2p<sup>6</sup> 3s<sup>2</sup> 3p<sup>3</sup>}}, while the noble gas notation is {{nowrap|[Ne] 3s<sup>2</sup> 3p<sup>3</sup>}}. This more compact notation makes it easier to identify elements, and is shorter than writing out the full notation of [[atomic orbital]]s.<ref>{{harvnb|CliffsNotes|2007|p=15}}</ref>

The noble gases cross the boundary between [[block (periodic table)|blocks]]—helium is an [[Block (periodic table)#s-block|s-element]] whereas the rest of members are [[Block (periodic table)#p-block|p-elements]]—which is unusual among the [[International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry|IUPAC]] groups. All other IUPAC groups contain elements from ''one'' block each. This causes some inconsistencies in trends across the table, and on those grounds some [[chemist]]s have proposed that helium should be moved to [[alkaline earth metal|group 2]] to be with other s<sup>2</sup> elements,<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grochala |first1=Wojciech |date=1 November 2017 |title=On the position of helium and neon in the Periodic Table of Elements |journal=Foundations of Chemistry |volume=20 |pages=191–207 |issue=2018 |doi=10.1007/s10698-017-9302-7 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Bent Weberg |first1=Libby |date=18 January 2019 |title="The" periodic table |url=https://cen.acs.org/articles/97/i3/Reactions.html |journal=Chemical & Engineering News |volume=97 |issue=3 |access-date=27 March 2020 |archive-date=1 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200201200009/https://cen.acs.org/articles/97/i3/Reactions.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Grandinetti |first1=Felice |date=23 April 2013 |title=Neon behind the signs |journal=Nature Chemistry |volume=5 |issue=2013 |page=438 |doi=10.1038/nchem.1631 |pmid=23609097 |bibcode=2013NatCh...5..438G |doi-access=free }}</ref> but this change has not generally been adopted.