What is a non-volatile gas?

Question

Someone referred to oxygen and "all other non-volatile gases" in a conversation and I am not finding any information as to what a non-volatile gas is or if oxygen is a non-volatile gas. Is there a list of these gases that I could refer to?

Answer 1

the term "volatile" is defined as the ability of a liquid to evaporate, so in principle liquids and not gases are volatile.As soon as a liquids vapor pressure, matches the pressure of its system it evaporates, the temperature at which it happens is the boiling point. If you were to look for volatile liquids, you will find a long list of organic compounds that evaporate easily. To refer to oxygen as non-volatile gas, simply means that oxygen in its native state is a gas and not a liquid, thus every element in the periodic table, that is a gas in its native state is a non-volatile gas e.g Nitrogen, oxygen,noble gases. I could use these elements to make compounds that will evaporate easily eg. acetone, isoflurane, sevoflurane and these would be volatile.

Answer 2

Volatility  usually means the tendency of a substance to vaporize. Gasoline is volatile. So perhaps they mean a gas that comes from evaporation of a liquid.