Are there any compounds of helium?

Question

Does the element helium ever form any chemical compounds?

All noble gasses are very stable because of a full outer shell of electrons. But xenon sometimes forms some compounds.
Are there any known compounds of He?

Answer 1

read here...

about 1/2 way down page. talks about helium compounds created by ionization of helium through glow discharge...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helium

Answer 2

Jeffrey,

Conventionally, no, there are not any known compounds of helium. The wikipedia article above talks about the existence of He containing molecules that have a rather transient existence, and then only in plasma. Whether these qualify as "helium compounds" is a bit sketchy. I'm not necessarily disagreeing with mw, but the answer to your question depends a lot on your definition of "compound". The lightest noble gas for which a halfway stable, isolate-able compound exists is Ar (HArF). And of course, you're right that Kr and Xe form several different fluoride and oxide compounds.

Answer 3

Although Xe and Kr can be seduced into forming some compounds with the two most electronegative elements, F and O, the electrons in He are too tightly held for the formation of any compounds.