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I saw a meme that was joking around about Lithium and Argon bonding (see pic below). It got me wondering: Can Lithium and Argon bond in any circumstance?

You Made Lithium React With Argon?" alt="You Made Lithium React With Argon?

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It's no joke; a gas-phase lithium-argon diatomic molecule does exist. However, it (and about two dozen other di-atoms having various elements bonded to the argon) is considered to be bound only by a van der Waals interaction. See the list of diatomic van der Waals molecules here.

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  • $\begingroup$ Can you justify your statement ? Do you have a reference ? $\endgroup$
    – Maurice
    Jun 28, 2022 at 20:45
  • $\begingroup$ Did I not link to the Wikipedia article? They cite many references for the claimed molecules. $\endgroup$
    – Oscar Lanzi
    Jun 28, 2022 at 20:49
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Argon is a noble gas. This means that it does not simply "bond" with anything. These gases have a very strong resistance to joining with other atoms. So, to answer your question, no, you can not bond argon and lithium under any circumstances. Anyone who says they have done so is a LiAr.

Also, since lithium is highly reactive and flammable and argon is used in neon, I would not suggest trying to combine these two without a proper location and gear.

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    $\begingroup$ I suggest taking a look at orthocresol's link in the comments to the OP, and doing a search for noble gas chemistry and compounds. There are too many compounds to name, including LiAr. $\endgroup$
    – airhuff
    May 23, 2017 at 1:19
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    $\begingroup$ @Nathanael the comment is meant to be helpful. The first lines in the abstract of the paper: "High pressure can fundamentally alter the bonding patterns of chemical elements. Its effects include stimulating elements thought to be 'inactive' to form unexpectedly stable compounds with unusual chemical and physical properties." If you take the stackexchange tour you'll see that SE is a little different than other sites. Welcome! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    May 23, 2017 at 3:52
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    $\begingroup$ @NilayGhosh and uhoh Thank you for your input, I forgot about pressure. I appreciate your help! :D It's nice to know when I messed up on something so I can go and relearn it! Thanks again! $\endgroup$
    – Nathanael
    May 23, 2017 at 4:28
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    $\begingroup$ @Nathanael you can avoid loss of the reputation points by deleting this answer. It's the way stackexchange works; the idea is to leave a set of questions and helpful answers for the benefit of future readers as well as for the OP (original poster) of the question. Down votes aren't towards the poster of a question or answer, they are votes on the content only, so never take them personally even when they feel like it. Theoretically we should all be working together to learn from each other and leave a nice set of Q&A's behind for future readers, and eventually for AI when it takes over ;) $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    May 23, 2017 at 5:58
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    $\begingroup$ I do not understand "and Argon is used in neon". $\endgroup$
    – Martin - マーチン ♦
    May 23, 2017 at 9:16

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