Neon

Neon as it's most common use,

a Neon sign - it glows red!

(Credit: Periodic table)

Atomic Number: 10
Relative Mass: 20.2
Group: 18
Period: 2
Block: P

Neon was discovered by two scientists working together - Sir William Ramsay and Morris Travers, in the year 1898. The isolation of this element happened at the University College London. It started by isolation of Krypton by evaporating liquid Argon. Both scientists were expecting an element which was lighter as they were looking for an element that nicely fit above Argon. So, they started again. This time they started with Argon as a solid. They message the first gas which evaporated.
This time they were successful. The sample which the pair had gathered surprised them - It glowed a brilliant red colour!

The element was named by Sir William Ramsay. It was called Neon due to the Greek word Neos meaning new.

Neon is the fifth most abundant element. Yet, in the atmosphere, Neon is only present in the concentration of 18 parts per million. It is a colourless, odourless gas which don't react with any other substance. Hence why when this element is distilled from liquid air, it will be in a fraction which contains both neon and helium. Activated charcoal is needed to split the two. Neon, just like Helium, is apart of the periodic group known as the Noble Gases.
I explained Noble Gases in my previous blog post. Click here to read that.

It's Uses

• The largest use of Neon is making 'Neon signs' for advertising. Pure neon lights will glow only red.
  
• Neon lights are basically a glass tube filled with the innert gas with electrodes at both

  

  The 'Neon' sign

  (Credic: UCAR)

  sides. When electricity is turned on (Or the voltage is increased), the free electrons are passed through the Neon. The energy of that movement is enough to ionise the Neon atom. Neon's atom turns positive and collectively changes to a plasma. To release energy, the atom releases a photon (a particle of light)... So the Neon glows. 
• Due to the way this happens, the wavelength of Neon shows an orange-red light. 
• Liquid neon is used as an important cryogenic refridgant. Neon is 40x better for doing this then Helium and 3x better than hydrogen
• Neon is used to make lazers.

Definitions

Cryogenic - The branch of physics that deals with the production/effect of extremely low tempertures
Ionise - Converting an atom, molecule or substance into an ions. This is typically done by removing one or more electrons
Refridgant - A substance used in refridgeration