Brain Freeze: Isotopes

Isotopes are atoms that contain the same number of protons but a different number of neutrons. The number of protons (the atomic number) is the same for each isotope, e.g. carbon-12,carbon-13 and carbon-14 each have 6 protons, but the number of neutrons in each isotope differs. This alters the total number of nucleons (protons and neutrons) in the nucleus, known as themass number, as well as the atomic mass. For example, carbon-12, carbon-13 and carbon-14 are three isotopes of the element carbon with mass numbers 12, 13 and 14 respectively. Theatomic number of carbon is 6 (every carbon atom has 6 protons); therefore the neutron number in these isotopes are 6, 7 and 8 neutrons respectively.

A nuclide is an atom with a specific number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, for example carbon-13 with 6 protons and 7 neutrons. The nuclide concept (referring to individual nuclear species) emphasizes nuclear properties over chemical properties, while the isotope concept (grouping all atoms of each element) emphasizes chemical over nuclear. The neutron number has drastic effects on nuclear properties, but its effect on chemical properties is negligible in most elements, and still quite small in the case of the very lightest elements, where it does matter slightly. Since isotope is the older term, it is better known, and is still sometimes used in contexts where nuclide might be more appropriate, such as nuclear technology and nuclear medicine.

An isotope and/or nuclide is specified by the name of the particular element (this indicates the atomic number implicitly) followed by a hyphen and the mass number (e.g. helium-3, carbon-12,carbon-13, iodine-131 and uranium-238). When a chemical symbol is used, e.g., "C" for carbon, standard notation is to indicate the number of nucleons with a superscript at the upper left of the chemical symbol and to indicate the atomic number with a subscript at the lower left (e.g. 3
2He, 4
2He, 12
6C, 14
6C, 235
92U, and 239
92U). Since the atomic number is implied by the element symbol, it is common to state only the mass number in the superscript and leave out the atomic number subscript.

Some isotopes are radioactive and are therefore described as radioisotopes or radionuclides, while others have never been observed to undergo radioactive decay and are described as stable isotopes. For example, 14C is a radioactive form of carbon while 12C and 13C are stable isotopes. There are about 339 naturally occurring nuclides on Earth,^[1] of which 288 are primordial nuclides, meaning that they have existed since the solar system's formation. These include 33 nuclides with very long half lives (over 80 million years) and 255 which are formally considered as "stable isotopes",^[1] since they have not been observed to decay.

Many apparently "stable" isotopes are predicted by theory to be radioactive, with extremely long half-lives (this does not count the possibility of proton decay, which would make all nuclides unstable). Of the 255 nuclides never observed to decay, only 90 of these (all from the first 40 elements) are stable in theory to all known forms of decay. Element 41 (niobium) is theoretically unstable to spontaneous fission, but this has never been detected. Many other stable nuclides are in theory energetically susceptible to other known forms of decay such as alpha decay or double beta decay, but no decay has yet been observed. The half lives for these processes often exceed a million times the estimated age of the universe, and in fact there are 27 known radionuclides (see primordial nuclide) with half lives longer than the age of the universe.

Adding in the radioactive nuclides that have been created artificially, there are more than 3100 currently known nuclides.^[2] These include 905 nuclides which are either stable, or have half lives longer than 60 minutes. See list of nuclides for details.