Deuterium properties

Properties of Deuterium Properties of deuterium are similar to those of protium. For example, it is colourless, odourless and tasteless. It is insoluble in water and bad conductor of heat. Its atomicity is 2. Some other physical constants these isotopes are ... 

The slightly different physical properties of deuterium allow its concentration in ordinary hydrogen (or the concentration of a deuterium-containing compound in a hydrogen compound) to be determined. Exchange of deuterium and hydrogen occurs and can be used to elucidate the mechanism of reactions (i.e. the deuterium is a non-radioactive tracer). Methanol exchanges with deuterium oxide thus ... 

Sometimes the strongly basic properties of Gngnard reagents can be turned to synthetic advantage A chemist needed samples of butane specifically labeled with deuterium the mass 2 isotope of hydrogen as shown... 

Helium-3 [14762-55-1], He, has been known as a stable isotope since the middle 1930s and it was suspected that its properties were markedly different from the common isotope, helium-4. The development of nuclear fusion devices in the 1950s yielded workable quantities of pure helium-3 as a decay product from the large tritium inventory implicit in maintaining an arsenal of fusion weapons (see Deuterium AND TRITIUM) Helium-3 is one of the very few stable materials where the only practical source is nuclear transmutation. The chronology of the isolation of the other stable isotopes of the hehum-group gases has been summarized (4). 

Because it was not possible to explain the differences in the effectiveness of hydrogen as compared to other gases on the basis of differences in their physical properties, ie, thermal conductivity, diffusivity, or heat capacity differences, their chemical properties were explored. To differentiate between the hydrogen atoms in the C2H2 molecules and those injected as the quench, deuterium gas was used as the quench. The data showed that although 90% of the acetylene was recovered, over 99% of the acetylene molecules had exchanged atoms with the deuterium quench to form C2HD and... 

Tables 2,3, and 4 outline many of the physical and thermodynamic properties ofpara- and normal hydrogen in the sohd, hquid, and gaseous states, respectively. Extensive tabulations of all the thermodynamic and transport properties hsted in these tables from the triple point to 3000 K and at 0.01—100 MPa (1—14,500 psi) are available (5,39). Additional properties, including accommodation coefficients, thermal diffusivity, virial coefficients, index of refraction, Joule-Thorns on coefficients, Prandti numbers, vapor pressures, infrared absorption, and heat transfer and thermal transpiration parameters are also available (5,40). Thermodynamic properties for hydrogen at 300—20,000 K and 10 Pa to 10.4 MPa (lO " -103 atm) (41) and transport properties at 1,000—30,000 K and 0.1—3.0 MPa (1—30 atm) (42) have been compiled. Enthalpy—entropy tabulations for hydrogen over the range 3—100,000 K and 0.001—101.3 MPa (0.01—1000 atm) have been made (43). Many physical properties for the other isotopes of hydrogen (deuterium and tritium) have also been compiled (44).

In addition to H2, D2, and molecular tritium [100028-17-8] the following isotopic mixtures exist HD [13983-20-5] HT [14885-60-0] and DT [14885-61-1]. Table 5 Hsts the vapor pressures of normal H2, D2, and T2 at the respective boiling points and triple points. As the molecular weight of the isotope increases, the triple point and boiling point temperatures also increase. Other physical constants also differ for the heavy isotopes. A 98% ortho—25/q deuterium mixture (the low temperature form) has the following critical properties = 1.650 MPa(16.28 atm), = 38.26 K, 17 = 60.3 cm/mol3... 

The thermal conductivity of gas-phase deuterium is about 0.73 times that of gas-phase hydrogen. This thermal conductivity difference offers a convenient method for analysis of H2—D2 mixtures. Other physical properties of D2, T2, HD, DT, and HT are Hsted in the Hterature (60). 

Thermodynamic Properties. Ordinary water contains three isotopes of hydrogen [1333-74-0] (qv), ie, H, H, and H, and three of oxygen [7782 4-7] (qv), ie, O, and The bulk of water is composed of and O. Tritium [15086-10-9] H, and are present only in extremely minute concentrations, but there is about 200-ppm deuterium [16873-17-9], H, and 1000-ppm in water and steam (see Deuterium and tritium). The thermodynamic properties of heavy water are subtly different from those of ordinary water. lAPWS has special formulations for heavy water. The properties given herein are for ordinary water having the usual mix of isotopes. 

The recognition in 1940 that deuterium as heavy water [7789-20-0] has nuclear properties that make it a highly desirable moderator and coolant for nuclear reactors (qv) (8,9) fueled by uranium (qv) of natural isotopic composition stimulated the development of industrial processes for the manufacture of heavy water. Between 1940 and 1945 four heavy water production plants were operated by the United States Government, one in Canada at Trail,... 

The physical and thermodynamic properties of elemental hydrogen and deuterium and of their respective oxides illustrate the effect of isotopic mass differences. 

Properties of Light and Heavy Hydrogen. Vapor pressures from the triple point to the critical point for hydrogen, deuterium, tritium, and the various diatomic combinations are Hsted in Table 1 (15). Data are presented for the equiUbrium and normal states. The equiUbrium state for these substances is the low temperature ortho—para composition existing at 20.39 K, the normal boiling point of normal hydrogen. The normal state is the high (above 200 K) temperature ortho—para composition, which remains essentially constant. 

The only large-scale use of deuterium in industry is as a moderator, in the form of D2O, for nuclear reactors. Because of its favorable slowing-down properties and its small capture cross section for neutrons, deuterium moderation permits the use of uranium containing the natural abundance of uranium-235, thus avoiding an isotope enrichment step in the preparation of reactor fuel. Heavy water-moderated thermal neutron reactors fueled with uranium-233 and surrounded with a natural thorium blanket offer the prospect of successful fuel breeding, ie, production of greater amounts of (by neutron capture in thorium) than are consumed by nuclear fission in the operation of the reactor. The advantages of heavy water-moderated reactors are difficult to assess. 

Hydrogen as it occurs in nature is predominantly composed of atoms in which the nucleus is a single proton. In addition, terrestrial hydrogen contains about 0.0156% of deuterium atoms in which the nucleus also contains a neutron, and this is the reason for its variable atomic weight (p. 17). Addition of a second neutron induces instability and tritium is radioactive, emitting low-energy particles with a half-life of 12.33 y. Some characteristic properties of these 3 atoms are given in Table 3.1, and their implications for stable isotope studies, radioactive tracer studies, and nmr spectroscopy are obvious. 

Table 3.1 Atomic properties of hydrogen (protium), deuterium, and tritium...

Quadrupole coupling constants for molecules are usually determined from the hyperfine structure of pure rotational spectra or from electric-beam and magnetic-beam resonance spectroscopies. Nuclear magnetic resonance, electron spin resonance and Mossbauer spectroscopies are also routes to the property. There is a large amount of experimental data for and halogen-substituted molecules. Less data is available for deuterium because the nuclear quadrupole is small. 

The years from 1923 to 1938 were relatively unproductive for G. N. Lewis insofar as his own research was concerned. The applications of the electron-pair bond came largely in the areas of organic and quantum chemistry in neither of these fields did Lewis feel at home. In the early 1930s. he published a series of relatively minor papers dealing with the properties of deuterium. Then in 1939 he began to publish in the field of photochemistry. Of approximately 20 papers in this area, several were of fundamental importance, comparable in quality to the best work of his early years. Retired officially in 1945, Lewis died a year later while carrying out an experiment on fluorescence. 

Because isotopes of the same element have the same number of protons and the same number of electrons, they have essentially the same chemical and physical properties. However, the mass differences between isotopes of hydrogen are comparable to the masses themselves, leading to noticeable differences in some physical properties and slight variations in some of their chemical properties. Hydrogen has three isotopes (Table B.2). The most common ( H) has no neutrons so its nucleus is a lone proton. The other two isotopes are less common but nevertheless so important in chemistry and nuclear physics that they are given special names and symbols. One isotope (2H) is called deuterium (D) and the other ( H) is called tritium (T). 

---