Lecture No.

Isotopes and their

Relative Abundance
Definition:

The atoms of same element having same atomic number but

different mass number are called isotopes.

The phenomenon of isotopy was discovered by Frederick

Soddy.
Hydrogen has three isotopes.

1 2 3
H H H

These are called protium, deutrium and tritium

respectively.
Protium has no neutron but deutrium and tritium have
1 and 2 neutrons respectively.

No. of neutrons = Atomic mass – Atomic number

Similarly, Carbon has three stable isotopes.

12
C C
13 14
C

 Each of these has 6-protons and 6-electrons.

 But these have 6,7 and 8 neutrons respectively.

 Properties of Istopes

Isotopes have same chemical properties as these

depend upon atomic number.

Isotopes have different physical properties as these

depend upon mass number.
Relative abundance of Isotopes
 All isotopes of an element have their own natural
abundance.
 The properties of element usually correspond to most
abundant isotope of that element.
 The relative abundance of isotopes of element is
determined by mass spectrometry.
Some Facts about Isotopes
 280 different isotopes occur in nature.

 Out of these 40 are radioactive.

 300 unstable radioactive isotopes have been produced

through artificial disintegration.

 No. of isotopes of an element
Elements with:
 Odd atomic number - never posses more than 2 stable
isotopes.
 Even atomic number - large number of isotopes.

Note:
Out of 280 naturally occurring isotopes, 154 have even
atomic number and even mass number.
 Relative abundance of isotopes
 Elements with atomic masses multiples of 4 are
particularly abundant.
 e.g. 16O, 24Mg, 28Si, 40Ca and 56Fe form 50% of earth’s
crust.

Mono-isotopic elements:
Elements having only one stable isotope.
e.g. Arsenic, Fluorine, Iodine and Gold.
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