Isotopes Have Different Numbers Of

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Isotopes Have Different Numbers Of What
Isotopes Have Different Numbers Of
Isotopes And Their Uses

Isotopes of Hydrogen

The isotopes of a particular element all have the same number of and but different numbers of. Protons, electrons, neutrons How would you write the hyphen notation of an isotope of carbon that had a mass number of 14 and an atomic number of 6? Isotopes are atoms of the same element that: a. Have different numbers of electrons. Have different numbers of protons. Have different numbers of neutrons. Magnesium (12 Mg) naturally occurs in three stable isotopes, 24 Mg, 25 Mg, and 26 Mg. There are 18 radioisotopes that have been discovered, ranging from 19 Mg to 40 Mg. The longest-lived radioisotope is 28 Mg with a half-life of 20.915 hours. The lighter isotopes mostly decay to isotopes of sodium while the heavier isotopes decay to isotopes of. Mar 08, 2018 The atomic numbers of these isobars are different from each other because different chemical elements have different atomic numbers. The Mattauch isobar rule states that if two adjacent elements on the periodic table have isotopes of the same mass number (isobars), one of these isotopes must be radioactive. If there are isobars of three.

The atoms of a chemical element can exist in different types. These are called isotopes. They have the same number of protons (and electrons), but different numbers of neutrons. Different isotopes of the same element have different masses. Mass is the word for how much substance (or matter) something has. Things with different masses have different weights. Because different isotopes have different numbers of neutrons, they do not all weigh the same or have the same mass.

Different isotopes of the same element have the same atomic number. They have the same number of protons. The atomic number is decided by the number of protons. Isotopes have different mass numbers, though, because they have different numbers of neutrons.

The word isotope, meaning at the same place, comes from the fact that isotopes are at the same place on the periodic table.

In a neutralatom, the number of electrons equals the number of protons. Isotopes of the same element also have the same number of electrons and the electronic structure. Because how an atom acts is decided by its electronic structure, isotopes are almost the same chemically, but different physically to their original atoms.

Heavier isotopes react chemically slower than lighter isotopes of the same element. This 'mass effect' is larger for protium (¹H) and deuterium (²H), because deuterium has twice the mass of protium. For heavier elements, the relative atomic weight ratio between isotopes is much less, and the mass effect is usually small.

Stability[change | change source]

Atomic nuclei are protons and neutrons held together by the nuclear force.

Because protons are positively charged, they repel each other. Neutrons, which are neutral, stabilize the nucleus. Because they are in the nucleus, the protons are pushed slightly apart. This reduces the electrostatic repulsion between the protons. They still exert the attractive nuclear force on each other and on protons. One or more neutrons are necessary for two or more protons to bind into a nucleus. As the number of protons increases, so does the number of neutrons needed to have a stable nucleus.

In nature some elements only have a single isotope. For example, fluorine-19 (¹⁹F) is the only stable isotope, of several, of fluorine. Other elements have many isotopes. For example, xenon has 9 isotopes. Of the 81 elements with a stable isotope, the largest number of stable isotopes for any element is ten (for the element tin).

Some isotopes are radioactive. These are called radioactive isotopes. Others are not radioactive. These are called stable isotopes.

Hydrogen has three common isotopes. The most common isotope of hydrogen is called protium (¹H). A hydrogen atom with an extra neutron (atomic mass of 2) is called deuterium (²H). Hydrogen with one proton and two neutrons (atomic mass of 3) is called tritium (³H). Protium and deuterium are stable isotopes, while tritium is a radioactive isotope.

The heaviest elements in the periodic table are all radioactive. All of the isotopes of radon, thorium, and uranium are radioactive, since they are very heavy. This is because the nuclear forces inside the nucleus of the atom have a tough time holding together all the particles with so many protons and neutrons inside.

Related pages[change | change source]

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Learning Objectives

Explain what isotopes are and how an isotope affects an element's atomic mass.
Determine the number of protons, electrons, and neutrons of an element with a given mass number.

All atoms of the same element have the same number of protons, but some may have different numbers of neutrons. For example, all carbon atoms have six protons, and most have six neutrons as well. But some carbon atoms have seven or eight neutrons instead of the usual six. Atoms of the same element that differ in their numbers of neutrons are called isotopes. Many isotopes occur naturally. Usually one or two isotopes of an element are the most stable and common. Different isotopes of an element generally have the same physical and chemical properties because they have the same numbers of protons and electrons.

An Example: Hydrogen Isotopes

Isotopes of magnesium have different numbers of

Hydrogen is an example of an element that has isotopes. Three isotopes of hydrogen are modeled in Figure (PageIndex{1}). Most hydrogen atoms have just one proton, one electron, and lack a neutron. These atoms are just called hydrogen. Some hydrogen atoms have one neutron as well. These atoms are the isotope named deuterium. Other hydrogen atoms have two neutrons. These atoms are the isotope named tritium.

For most elements other than hydrogen, isotopes are named for their mass number. For example, carbon atoms with the usual 6 neutrons have a mass number of 12 (6 protons + 6 neutrons = 12), so they are called carbon-12. Carbon atoms with 7 neutrons have an atomic mass of 13 (6 protons + 7 neutrons = 13). These atoms are the isotope called carbon-13.

Example (PageIndex{1}): Lithium Isotopes

What is the atomic number and the mass number of an isotope of lithium containing 3 neutrons?
What is the atomic number and the mass number of an isotope of lithium containing 4 neutrons?

Solution

A lithium atom contains 3 protons in its nucleus irrespective of the number of neutrons or electrons.

[ begin{align}text{atomic number} = left( text{number of protons} right) &= 3 nonumber left( text{number of neutrons} right) &= 3 nonumberend{align} nonumber ]

[ begin{align} text{mass number} & = left( text{number of protons} right) + left( text{number of neutrons} right) nonumber text{mass number} & = 3 + 3 nonumber &= 6 nonumber end{align}nonumber]

[ begin{align}text{atomic number} = left( text{number of protons} right) &= 3 nonumber left( text{number of neutrons} right) & = 4nonumberend{align}nonumber]

[ begin{align}text{mass number} & = left( text{number of protons} right) + left( text{number of neutrons} right)nonumber text{mass number} & = 3 + 4nonumber &= 7 nonumber end{align}nonumber]

Notice that because the lithium atom always has 3 protons, the atomic number for lithium is always 3. The mass number, however, is 6 in the isotope with 3 neutrons, and 7 in the isotope with 4 neutrons. In nature, only certain isotopes exist. For instance, lithium exists as an isotope with 3 neutrons, and as an isotope with 4 neutrons, but it doesn't exist as an isotope with 2 neutrons or as an isotope with 5 neutrons.

Stability of Isotopes

Atoms need a certain ratio of neutrons to protons to have a stable nucleus. Having too many or too few neutrons relative to protons results in an unstable, or radioactive, nucleus that will sooner or later break down to a more stable form. This process is called radioactive decay. Many isotopes have radioactive nuclei, and these isotopes are referred to as radioisotopes. When they decay, they release particles that may be harmful. This is why radioactive isotopes are dangerous and why working with them requires special suits for protection. The isotope of carbon known as carbon-14 is an example of a radioisotope. In contrast, the carbon isotopes called carbon-12 and carbon-13 are stable.

This whole discussion of isotopes brings us back to Dalton's Atomic Theory. According to Dalton, atoms of a given element are identical. But if atoms of a given element can have different numbers of neutrons, then they can have different masses as well! How did Dalton miss this? It turns out that elements found in nature exist as constant uniform mixtures of their naturally occurring isotopes. In other words, a piece of lithium always contains both types of naturally occurring lithium (the type with 3 neutrons and the type with 4 neutrons). Moreover, it always contains the two in the same relative amounts (or 'relative abundance'). In a chunk of lithium, (93%) will always be lithium with 4 neutrons, while the remaining (7%) will always be lithium with 3 neutrons.

Dalton always experimented with large chunks of an element—chunks that contained all of the naturally occurring isotopes of that element. As a result, when he performed his measurements, he was actually observing the averaged properties of all the different isotopes in the sample. For most of our purposes in chemistry, we will do the same thing and deal with the average mass of the atoms. Luckily, aside from having different masses, most other properties of different isotopes are similar.

There are two main ways in which scientists frequently show the mass number of an atom they are interested in. It is important to note that the mass number is not given on the periodic table. These two ways include writing a nuclear symbol or by giving the name of the element with the mass number written.

To write a nuclear symbol, the mass number is placed at the upper left (superscript) of the chemical symbol and the atomic number is placed at the lower left (subscript) of the symbol. The complete nuclear symbol for helium-4 is drawn below:

The following nuclear symbols are for a nickel nucleus with 31 neutrons and a uranium nucleus with 146 neutrons.

[ce{^{59}_{28}Ni}]

[ ce{ ^{238}_{92}U}]

In the nickel nucleus represented above, the atomic number 28 indicates that the nucleus contains 28 protons, and therefore, it must contain 31 neutrons in order to have a mass number of 59. The uranium nucleus has 92 protons, as all uranium nuclei do; and this particular uranium nucleus has 146 neutrons.

Another way of representing isotopes is by adding a hyphen and the mass number to the chemical name or symbol. Thus the two nuclei would be Nickel-59 or Ni-59 and Uranium-238 or U-238, where 59 and 238 are the mass numbers of the two atoms, respectively. Note that the mass numbers (not the number of neutrons) are given to the side of the name.

Example (PageIndex{2}): Potassium-40

How many protons, electrons, and neutrons are in an atom of (^{40}_{19}ce{K})?

Solution

[text{atomic number} = left( text{number of protons} right) = 19]

For all atoms with no charge, the number of electrons is equal to the number of protons.

[text{number of electrons} = 19]

The mass number, 40, is the sum of the protons and the neutrons.

To find the number of neutrons, subtract the number of protons from the mass number.

[text{number of neutrons} = 40 - 19 = 21.]