ATOMS,ELEMENTS
AND COMPOUNDS
II
ISOTOPY AND ELECTONIC CONFIQURATION
LESSON OBJECTIVES
At the end of the lesson, students should be able to:
• define isotopy and isotopes
• state the two types of isotopes as being radioactive
and non-radioactive
• state one medical and one industrial use of
radioactive isotopes
calculate the relative atomic mass of an element,
given the mass numbers of its isotopes
Isotopy
Isotopy is the occurrence of two or more atoms of a
chemical element, having the same atomic number
(i.e., the same number of protons), but having
different atomic mass numbers as a result of
different number of neutrons in their nuclei).
Isotopes
These are the atoms of the same element that
contain equal numbers of protons but different
numbers of neutrons in their nuclei, and hence differ
in relative atomic mass but not in chemical
properties.
Types of isotopes
Scientists divide isotopes into two main types:
Radioactive isotopes and,
Stable or Non- radioactive isotopes.
Radioactive isotopes
Isotopes that are radioactive are often called
radioisotopes or radionuclides. These are
isotopes that decay radioactively (i.e. they transform
into atoms of other elements naturally by emitting
some forms of radiations).
Non-radioactive isotopes
Isotopes that do not decay radioactively are known
as stable isotopes or stable nuclides.
Examples of Isotopes
The common examples are the
isotopes of hydrogen and carbon. Hydrogen
has three stable isotopes namely protium,
deuterium, and tritium. These isotopes have the
same number of protons but different number of
neutrons wherein protium has zero, deuterium has
one and tritium has two.
Carbon also has three isotopes namely Carbon-
12, Carbon-13, and Carbon-14. The numbers 12,
13, and 14 are the isotopes’ atomic masses. Here,
Carbon-12 is a stable isotope whereas carbon-14
is mostly a radioactive isotope.
Facts About Isotopes
Here are some interesting facts about isotopes:
Most of the elements that are found in nature are a
combination of several isotopes.
They are also known as Nuclides.
About 1000 unstable isotopes are currently in existence.
Some of these occur in nature while some are
manufactured synthetically in laboratories
Close to 20 elements have only 1 stable isotope. Few of
them include gold, aluminium, phosphorous, fluorine, and
sodium.
Different isotopes of elements are used in fields like
carbon dating, nuclear reactors and in medicinal purposes.
Uses of Radioactive Isotopes
Radioactive isotopes find uses in agriculture, food
industry, pest control, archeology and medicine.
Radiocarbon dating, which measures the age of
carbon-bearing items, uses a radioactive isotope
known as carbon-14. In medicine, gamma rays
emitted by radioactive elements are used to detect
tumors inside the human body.
Calculation of Relative atomic
Mass
Relative atomic mass (symbol: Aᵣ) or atomic weight is
a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the
ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical
element in a given sample to the atomic mass
constant. The atomic mass constant (symbol: mᵤ) is
defined as being 1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12
atom. Since both quantities in the ratio are masses,
the resulting value is dimensionless; hence the value
is said to be relative.
Calculating Relative Atomic Mass (Atomic Weight) for an
Element
Atomic mass is the sum of all the protons, neutrons,
and electrons in a single atom or molecule. However,
the mass of an electron is so small, it is considered
negligible and not included in the calculation.
The term relative atomic mass is often used to refer
to the average atomic mass of all of the isotopes of
one element. The relative atomic mass takes into
account the average of the masses of naturally
occurring isotopes of the same element.
To calculate the relative atomic mass of an element, the following
steps are followed:
Determine which isotopes are in the sample. Chemists often
determine the relative proportions of isotopes in a given...
Determine the relative abundance of each isotope in the sample.
Within a given element, different isotopes appear in...
Multiply the atomic mass of each isotope by its proportion and
dividing the result by the sum of the ratios
The carbon-12 atom, is the standard atom against which the masses
of other atoms are compared. The relative atomic mass of an
element is the average mass of its atoms, compared to 1/12th the
mass of a carbon-12 atom. The relative atomic mass, Ar, of an
element is calculated from:
the mass numbers of its isotopes
the abundance of these isotopes
Calculating Ar of Chlorine
Chlorine naturally exists as two isotopes, (chlorine-35) and
(chlorine-37).
The abundance of chlorine-35 is 75% and the abundance of chlorine-
37 is 25%. In other words, in every 100 chlorine atoms, 75 atoms
have a mass number of 35, and 25 atoms have a mass number of 37.
To calculate the relative atomic mass, Ar, of chlorine:
Ar of Cl = Total mass of atoms/Total number of atoms
= (75×35) + (25×37)/(75+25)
= 2625+925/100
= 3550/100
= 35.5 (to 1 decimal place)
Notice that the answer is closer to 35 than it is to 37. This is because
the chlorine-35 isotope is much more abundant than the chlorine-37
isotope
Elements
An element is any substance which cannot be split into
simpler substances and contains the same type of atoms.
Examples of elements are:
Hydrogen
Oxygen
Gold
Diamond, an allotrope of carbon
Tin
Silver
Silicon, e.t.c.
Compounds
A compound is any substance which contains two or
more elements, chemically combined together.
Examples are:
Water
Ammonia
Sodium chloride
Urea
Ethanol
Glucose, e.t.c.
