Amazing Phase Change in Supercritical Xenon Gas

Some amazing physics going on here!

Xenon is a heavy and very unreactive gas, over four times heavier than air. Atomic number 54, Atomic Mass 131, it is in group 18 of the Periodic Table, and is a so-called 'Noble Gas'. It normally boils at minus 108 degrees Centigrade, and is present as a gas in very small quantities (0.086 parts per million by volume) in the atmosphere.

This small glass tube contains Xenon at 65 times atmospheric pressure. This increase in pressure has raised the boiling point to 16 degrees Centigrade. So at normal room temperature, the Xenon is a gas. But touch the glass with an ice cube for a few seconds, to bring the temperature inside the tube below 16 degrees, and there is a sudden cloud, and then the tube is about one third full of a clear liquid - liquid Zenon! Allow the tube to warm up, and the liquid vanishes, as the liquid Xenon changes back into a gas. Just like that!

Видео Amazing Phase Change in Supercritical Xenon Gas канала Grand Illusions