Helium does not react with any other substance. Is it accurate to say that helium has no chemical properties?

Answer 1

No, helium has lots of chemical properties of interest to chemists. Just the fact that helium does not form compounds is a chemical property.

Be careful about this type of question in chemistry ... it is nebulous and the answer is of little importance.

(Unlike, for example, the temperature at which uranium hexafluoride becomes a gas, which is specific and something the gov't of Iran is incredibly interested in at the moment.)


For more information, see:

http://www.lenntech.com/Periodic-chart-elements/He-en.htm


Chemical properties include:

Atomic number
2

Atomic mass
4.00260 g.mol -1

Electronegativity according to Pauling
unknown

Density
0.178*10 -3 g.cm -3 at 20 °C

Melting point
- 272.2 (26 atm) °C

Boiling point
- 268.9 °C

Vanderwaals radius
0.118 nm

Ionic radius
unknown

Isotopes
2

Electronic shell
1s 2

Energy of first ionisation
2372 kJ.mol -1

Answer 2

well ... one property is that it does not react with any other substance

(and this is not even strictly true as helium can react and form unstable compounds when bombarded with electrons)