ISOTOPES AND ISOBARS AND THEIR APPLICATIONS

CONTENTS
Isotopes Radioactive, Primordial and Stable isotopes Nuclear properties of isotopes Applications Isobars Mass Stability

Applications

ISOTOPES
Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element. While all isotopes of a given element share the same number of protons, each

isotope differs from the others in its number of neutrons. The term isotope is formed from the Greek roots isos ( "equal") and topos ( "place"). Hence: "the same place," meaning that different isotopes of a single element occupy the same position on the periodic table
The number of protons within the atom's nucleus uniquely identifies an element,

but a given element may in principle have any number of neutrons. The number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in the nucleus is the mass number, and each isotope of a given element has a different mass number.
For example, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are three isotopes of the

element carbon with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. The atomic number of carbon is 6 which means that every carbon atom has 6 protons, so that the neutron numbers of these isotopes are 6, 7 and 8 respectively.

RADIOACTIVE, PREMORDIAL AND STABLE

propertiesA neutral atom has the same number of electrons as protons. Thus, different isotopes of a given element all have the same number of protons and share a similar electronic structure. Because the chemical behavior of an atom is largely determined by its electronic structure, different isotopes exhibit nearly identical chemical behavior. The main exception to this is the kinetic isotope effect: due to their larger masses, heavier isotopes tend to react somewhat more slowly than lighter isotopes of the same element. This is most pronounced for protium (1H) and deuterium (2H), because deuterium has twice the mass of protium. The mass effect between deuterium and the relatively light protium also affects the behavior of their respective chemical bonds, by means of changing the center of gravity (reduced mass) of the atomic systems. However, for heavier elements, which have more neutrons than lighter elements, the ratio of the nuclear mass to the collective electronic mass is far greater, and the relative mass difference between isotopes is much less

NUCLEAR PROPRTIES
Atomic nuclei consist of protons and neutrons bound together by

the residual strong force. Because protons are positively charged, they repel each other. Neutrons, which are electrically neutral, stabilize the nucleus in two ways. Their copresence pushes protons slightly apart, reducing the electrostatic repulsion between the protons, and they exert the attractive nuclear force on each other and on protons. For this reason, one or more neutrons are necessary for two or more protons to be bound into a nucleus.

 As the number of protons increases, so does the ratio of neutrons to

protons necessary to ensure a stable nucleus . For example, although the neutron:proton ratio of 3 2He is 1:2, the neutron:proton ratio of 238 92U is greater than 3:2. A number of lighter elements have stable nuclides with the ratio 1:1 (Z = N). The nuclide 40 20Ca (calcium-40) is the observationally the heaviest stable nuclide with the same number of neutrons and protons; (theoretically, the heaviest stable one is sulfur-32). All stable nuclides heavier than calcium-40 contain more neutrons than protons.

APPLICATIONS
Several applications exist that capitalize on properties of the

various isotopes of a given element. Isotope separation is a significant technological challenge, particularly with heavy elements such as uranium or plutonium. Lighter elements such as lithium, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen are commonly separated by gas diffusion of their compounds such as CO and NO. The separation of hydrogen and deuterium is unusual since it is based on chemical rather than physical properties, for example in the Girdler sulfide process. Uranium isotopes have been separated in bulk by gas diffusion, gas centrifugation, laser ionization separation, and (in the Manhattan Project) by a type of production mass spectrometry.

Use of chemical and biological properties

relative abundances of isotopes of a given element in a particular sample. For biogenic substances in particular, significant variations of isotopes of C, N and O can occur. Analysis of such variations has a wide range of applications, such as the detection of adulteration of food products[22] or the geographic origins of products using isoscapes The identification of certain meteorites as having originated on Mars is based in part upon the isotopic signature of trace gases contained in them.

 Isotopic substitution can be used to determine the mechanism of a

chemical reaction via the kinetic isotope effect. Another common application is isotopic labeling, the use of unusual ormally, atoms of a given element are indistinguishable from each other. However, by using isotopes of different masses, even different nonradioactive stable isotopes can be distinguished by mass spectrometry or infrared spectroscopy. For example, in 'stable isotope labeling with amino acids in cell culture (SILAC)' stable isotopes are used to quantify proteins. If radioactive isotopes are used, they can be detected by the radiation they emit (this is called radioisotopic labeling). [dating used to determine the age of carbonaceous materials. Use of nuclear propertiesA technique similar to radioisotopic labeling is radiometric dating: using the known half-life of an unstable element, one can calculate the amount of time that has elapsed since a known level of isotope existed. The most widely known example is radiocarbon

Use of nuclear properties A technique similar to radioisotopic labeling is radiometric dating: using the known half-life of an unstable element, one can calculate the amount of time that has elapsed since a known level of isotope existed. The most widely known example is radiocarbon dating used to determine the age of carbonaceous materials. Use of nuclear propertiesA technique similar to radioisotopic labeling is radiometric dating: using the known half-life of an unstable element, one can calculate the amount of time that has elapsed since a known level of isotope existed. Several forms of spectroscopy rely on the unique nuclear properties of specific isotopes, both radioactive and stable. For example, nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy can be used only for isotopes with a nonzero nuclear spin. The most common isotopes used with NMR spectroscopy are 1H, 2D,15N, 13C, and 31P. Mssbauer spectroscopy also relies on the nuclear transitions of specific isotopes, such as 57Fe.

ISOBARS
Isobars are atoms (nuclides) of different chemical elements that

have the same number of nucleons. Correspondingly, isobars differ in atomic number (or number of protons) but have the same mass number. An example of a series of isobars would be 40S, 40Cl, 40Ar, 40K, and 40Ca. The nuclei of these nuclides all contain 40 nucleons, however they contain varying numbers of protons and neutrons. The word "isobar" was coined by Alexander von Humboldt.[2] It is derived from the Greek word isos, meaning "equal" and baros, meaning "weight".

 The same mass number does not imply neither the same mass of

MASS

nuclei, nor equal atomic masses of corresponding nuclides. From the Weizscker's formula for the mass of a nucleus where mass number A equals to the sum of atomic number Z and number of neutrons N, and mp, mn, aV, aS, aC, aA are constants, one can see that the mass depends on Z and N non-linearly, even for a constant mass number. For odd A, it is admitted that = 0 and the mass dependence on Z is convex (or on N or N Z, it does not matter for a constant A). This explains that beta-decay is energetically favorable for neutron-rich nuclides, and positron decay is favorable for strongly neutron-deficient nuclides. Both decay modes do not change the mass number, hence an original nucleus and its daughter nucleus are isobars. In both aforementioned cases, a heavier nucleus decays to its lighter isobar.

 For even A the term has the for where aP is another constant.

This term, subtracted from the mass expression above, is positive

for even-even nuclei and negative for odd-odd nuclei. This means that even-even nuclei, which have not a strong neutron excess or neutron deficiency, have higher binding energy than their odd-odd isobar neighbors. It implies that even-even nuclei are (relatively) lighter and more stable. The difference is especially strong for small A. This effect is also predicted (qualitatively) by other nuclear models and has important consequences.

STABILITY
StabilityThe Mattauch isobar rule states that if two adjacent

elements on the periodic table have isotopes of the same mass number, (at least) one of these isobars must be a radionuclide (radioactive). In cases of three isobars of sequential elements where the first and last are stable (this is often the case for even-even nuclides, see above), branched decay of the middle isobar may occur; e.g. radioactive iodine-126 has an almost equal probabilities for two decay modes, which lead to different daughter isotopes: tellurium126 and xenon-126.

 No observationally stable isobars exist for mass numbers 5 (decays

to helium-4 plus a proton or neutron), 8 (decays to two helium-4 nuclei), 147, 151, as well as for 209 and above. Two observationally stable isobars exist for 36, 40, 46, 50, 54, 58, 64, 70, 74, 78, 80, 84, 86, 92, 94, 96, 98, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 120, 122, 123, 126, 132, 134, 136, 138, 142, 144, 146, 148, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, 168, 170, 176, 180, 184, 186, 192, 196, 198 and 204. Three observationally stable isobars exist for 124

APPLICATION