Question: Is it possible to create a chemical reaction with Helium?

Will Reynolds answered on 21 Jun 2012:

Hi revilo! Yes it may be possible to react something with Helium but this would probably take a lot of energy. Helium is very unreactive because it has a full outer ‘shell’ of 8 electrons, which are all paired up nicely and don’t like being moved so it is very stable. For reactions to happen they need electrons to move from one atom to another. With other elements like sodium and chlorine this happens because their outer shells are not full and they have a space. Sodium only has 1 and chlorine has 7 so when these react together the electron from sodium moves into the chlorine. This then makes both outer shells for each atom full and so sodium chloride is very stable (sodiums outer shell becomes the next one down which is already full).

To make Helium react an electron would either have to be added or subtracted from its outer shell and because it is so stable, this would requre lots of energy, but it could certainly be possible! Thanks for your question.