Why is helium inert, whereas hydrogen can be both reduced and oxidized?

Answer 1

Well, because hydrogen and helium, can possess up to 2 valence electrons.....but hydrogen can be both reduced and oxidized.

For hydrogen and helium we fill the #1s# shell, which can accommodate only the TWO electrons. Now hydrogen can be reduced to give hydride anions, and can also be oxidized to give a formal #H^+#.

By contrast, helium has a FULL valence shell, i.e. #1s^2#, which makes it extremely difficult to either reduce or oxidize. And hence helium, like the other closed-shell Noble gases, is a very unreactive customer.

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Answer 2

Owen Ambrose

Helium is inert because it has a full complement of electrons in its outer shell, making it chemically stable. Hydrogen can be both reduced and oxidized due to its ability to share or gain electrons in chemical reactions.

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Answer from HIX Tutor

When evaluating a one-sided limit, you need to be careful when a quantity is approaching zero since its sign is different depending on which way it is approaching zero from. Let us look at some examples.