Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or nuclides) of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemical element), but different nucleon numbers (mass numbers) due to different numbers of neutrons in their nuclei. While all isotopes of a given element have virtually the same chemical properties, they have different atomic masses and physical properties.
The term isotope comes from the Greek roots (ἴσος "equal") and (τόπος "place"), meaning "the same place": different isotopes of an element occupy the same place on the periodic table. It was coined by Scottish doctor and writer Margaret Todd in a 1913 suggestion to the British chemist Frederick Soddy, who popularized the term.
The number of protons within the atom's nucleus is called its atomic number and is equal to the number of electrons in the neutral (non-ionized) atom. Each atomic number identifies a specific element, but not the isotope; an atom of a given element may have a wide range in its number of neutrons. The number of nucleons (both protons and neutrons) in the nucleus is the atom's 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 atomic 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.
Isotope vs. nuclide A nuclide is a species of an atom with a specific number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, for example, carbon-13 with 6 protons and 7 neutrons. Thus the terms are roughly the same, but the nuclide concept (referring to individual nuclear species) emphasizes nuclear properties over chemical properties, whereas the isotope concept (grouping all atoms of each element) emphasizes chemical over nuclear. The neutron number greatly affects nuclear properties, but its effect on chemical properties is negligible for most elements. Even for the lightest elements, whose ratio of neutron number to atomic number varies the most between isotopes, it usually has only a small effect although it matters in some circumstances (for hydrogen, the lightest element, the isotope effect is large enough to affect biology strongly). The term isotopes (originally also isotopic elements, now sometimes isotopic nuclides) is intended to imply comparison (like synonyms or isomers). For example, the nuclides , , are isotopes (nuclides with the same atomic number but different mass numbersIUPAC Gold Book), but , , are isobars (nuclides with the same mass numberIUPAC Gold Book). As the older and better-known term, isotope is however still used in some contexts where nuclide might be more appropriate, such as in nuclear technology and nuclear medicine.
Notation
An isotope or nuclide is specified by the name of the element (which implies the atomic number) followed by a hyphen and the mass number (e.g. helium-3, helium-4, carbon-12, carbon-14, uranium-235 and uranium-239). When a element symbol is used, e.g. "C" for carbon, it is standard to use "AZE notation" which has the form , where A is the mass number written as a superscript, Z is the atomic number written as a subscript, and E is the element symbol (e.g. , , , , , and ).This notation seems to have been introduced in the second half of the 1930s. Before that, various notations were used, such as Ne(22) for neon-22 (1934), Pb for lead-210 (1933), or Ne for neon-22 (1935) The last remained standard into the 1950s: E for einsteinium-253 (1956). Because the atomic number is already fixed by the element symbol, it is common to state only the mass number in the superscript and leave out the atomic number subscript (e.g. He, He, C, C, U, and U). The letter m (for metastable) is appended after the mass number to indicate a nuclear isomer, a metastable or energetically excited nuclear state (as opposed to the lowest-energy ground state), for example (tantalum-180m); a number can be appended to it to distinguish different metastable states, though this is rare in practice.
The common pronunciation of the AZE notation is different from how it is written: is commonly pronounced helium-four instead of four-two-helium, and uranium two-thirty-five (American English) or uranium-two-three-five (British) instead of 235-92-uranium or 235-uranium. This is not an error but the original spoken usage for isotope names, originating before AZE notation became established.
Radioactive, primordial, and stable isotopes Some isotopes/nuclides are radioactive, and are therefore called radioisotopes or radionuclides, whereas others have never been observed to decay radioactively and are called stable isotopes or stable nuclides. For example, C is a radioactive form of carbon, while C and C are stable isotopes. There are about 339 naturally occurring nuclides on Earth, of which 286 are primordial nuclides, meaning that they have existed since the Solar System's formation.
Primordial nuclides include 35 nuclides with very long half-lives (over 100 million years) and 251 that are considered "stable nuclides", as they have not been observed to decay. In most cases, if an element has stable isotopes, those isotopes predominate in the elemental abundance found on Earth and in the Solar System. However, in the cases of three elements (tellurium, indium, and rhenium) the most abundant isotope found in nature is actually one (or two) extremely long-lived radioisotope(s) of the element, despite these elements having one or more stable isotopes.
Theory predicts that many apparently "stable" nuclides are radioactive, with extremely long half-lives (discounting the possibility of proton decay, which would make all nuclides ultimately unstable). Some stable nuclides are in theory energetically susceptible to other known forms of decay, such as alpha decay or double beta decay, but no decay products have yet been observed, and so these isotopes are said to be "observationally stable". The predicted half-lives for these nuclides often greatly exceed the estimated age of the universe, and in fact, there are also 31 known radionuclides (see primordial nuclide) with half-lives longer than the age of the universe.
The total of all known nuclides, of which most have been created only artificially, is several thousand, of which 987 are stable or have a half-life longer than one hour; see List of nuclides.
History
Radioactive isotopes The existence of isotopes was first suggested in 1913 by the radiochemist Frederick Soddy, based on studies of radioactive decay chains that indicated about 40 different species referred to as radioelements (i.e. radioactive elements) between uranium and lead, although the periodic table only allowed for 11 elements between lead and uranium inclusive.Others had also suggested the possibility of isotopes; for example: See especially page 206. (Cameron also anticipated the displacement law.)
Several attempts to separate these new radioelements chemically had failed. For example, Soddy had shown in 1910 that mesothorium (later shown to be Ra), radium (Ra, the longest-lived isotope), and thorium X (Ra) are impossible to separate. Attempts to place the radioelements in the periodic table led Soddy and Kazimierz Fajans independently to propose their radioactive displacement law in 1913, to the effect that alpha decay produced an element two places to the left in the periodic table, whereas beta decay emission produced an element one place to the right.Kasimir Fajans (1913) "Über eine Beziehung zwischen der Art einer radioaktiven Umwandlung und dem elektrochemischen Verhalten der betreffenden Radioelemente" (On a relation between the type of radioactive transformation and the electrochemical behavior of the relevant radioactive elements), Physikalische Zeitschrift, 14: 131–136.Soddy announced his "displacement law" in: .Soddy elaborated his displacement law in: Alexander Smith Russell (1888–1972) also published a displacement law: Russell, Alexander S. (1913) "The periodic system and the radio-elements," Chemical News and Journal of Industrial Science, 107: 49–52. Soddy recognized that emission of an alpha particle followed by two beta particles led to the formation of an element chemically identical to the initial element but with a mass four units lighter and with different radioactive properties.
Soddy proposed that several types of atoms (differing in radioactive properties) could occupy the same place in the table. For example, the alpha-decay of uranium-235 forms thorium-231, whereas the beta decay of actinium-230 forms thorium-230. The term "isotope", Greek for "at the same place", was suggested to Soddy by Margaret Todd, a Scottish physician and family friend, during a conversation in which he explained his ideas to her.Soddy first used the word "isotope" in: Scerri, Eric R. (2007) The Periodic Table, Oxford University Press, , Ch. 6, note 44 (p. 312) citing Alexander Fleck, described as a former student of Soddy's.In his 1893 book, William T. Preyer also used the word "isotope" to denote similarities among elements. From p. 9 of William T. Preyer, Das genetische System der chemischen Elemente [The genetic system of the chemical elements] (Berlin, Germany: R. Friedländer & Sohn, 1893): "Die ersteren habe ich der Kürze wegen isotope Elemente genannt, weil sie in jedem der sieben Stämmme der gleichen Ort, nämlich dieselbe Stuffe, einnehmen." (For the sake of brevity, I have named the former "isotopic" elements, because they occupy the same place in each of the seven families [i.e., columns of the periodic table], namely the same step [i.e., row of the periodic table].) He received the 1921 Nobel Prize in Chemistry in part for his work on isotopes.
In 1914 T. W. Richards found variations between the atomic weight of lead from different mineral sources, attributable to radiogenic variations in isotopic composition;The origins of the conceptions of isotopes Frederick Soddy, Nobel prize lecture the natural radioactive series ending with three different isotopes of lead.
Stable isotopes