The formation of ${\mathrm{O}}_2^{+}{\left[{\mathrm{PtF}}_6\right]}^{-}$ is the basis for the formation of xenon fluorides. This is because:

In March 1962, Neil Bartlett, then at the University of British Columbia, observed the reaction of a noble gas. First, he prepared a red compound which is formulated as ${\mathrm{O}}_2^{+}{\left[{\mathrm{PtF}}_6\right]}^{-}$ and it is already know that the first ionisation enthalpy of molecular oxygen (1175 kJ ${\mathrm{mol}}^{-1}$) is almost similar with that xenon (1170 kJ ${\mathrm{mol}}^{-1}$). Then he made efforts to prepare same type of compound by mixing Pt ${\mathrm{F}}_6$ and Xenon ${\mathrm{Xe}}^{+}{\left[{\mathrm{PtF}}_6\right]}^{+}$. After this discovery, a number of xenon compounds mainly with most electronegative elements like fluorine and oxygen, have been synthesised.