Concept in Definition ABC
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Javier Navarro, in Oct. 2015
Starting from the etymology of the term in question, it should be noted that the prefix iso means the same and topos means type, so the word isotope means the same type. Talking about isotopes implies that we are in the field of chemistry and, more specifically, in the different elements of nature.
If we look at the periodic table of the elements, it can be seen that the atoms are accompanied by two numbers, one at the top and the other at the bottom. The number at the bottom is known as the atomic number (the number of protons) and the number at the bottom The higher is the mass number (the mass of the atom, which is equal to the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in a atom). Starting from this initial clarification, we can understand the concept of isotopes, which are atoms with the same number of protons but with a different number of neutrons. In other words, isotopes are atoms of the same chemical element they do not have the same number of protons and neutrons.
Normally isotopes do not have special names and the only ones that do have specific names are hydrogen isotopes (there are isotopes of hydrogen known by the name of protium, others by the designation of deuterium and those that are called tripio).
What are isotopes for
There are stable and unstable isotopes. The former are the most abundant in nature and the latter are less abundant and also have a property singular, emit radiation. Thus, unstable isotopes are radioactive. His app practice appears in very diverse fields: in radiographs or in the use of technique of carbon 14 that allows knowing the dating of a fossil, among many other functions.
A specific application of isotopes for science was related to tripium (remember that it is one of the isotopes of hydrogen), which allowed us to find out the structure of the DNA. In the pharmaceutical industry, one type of iodine (iodine-123) is a radioactive isotope that is used in some tests for medicine nuclear (for example, CT scans).
Discovery of isotopes
It was at the beginning of the 20th century that the English scientist Joseph John Thomson discovered the presence of isotopes when he studied the behavior of positive rays and fields electromagnetic. The first chemical element in which he observed its presence was in neon, which has two isotopes (neon 20 and 22). The path that Thomson began with the discovery of isotopes was a first step in his elaboration of an explanatory model on the structure of the atom.
Photo: iStock - luchschen
Topics in Isotope