Elements, isotopic composition

Elemental isotopic compositions (isotope ratios) can be used mass spectrometrically in a routine sense to monitor a substance for the presence of different kinds of elements, as with chlorine or platinum. It can also be used in a precise sense to examine tiny variations in these ratios, from which important deductions can be made in a wide variety of disciplines. 

The first mantle degassing models that incorporated considerations of mantle structure were developed with the discovery of mantle noble gas isotope heterogeneities (Allegre et al, 1986, 1983 Hart et al., 1979 Kurz et al., 1982). These models, following earher interpretations of htho-phile element isotope composition variations... 

Eganhouse RP and Kaplan IR (1988) Depositional history of recent sediments from San Pedro Shelf, California reconstruction using elemental, isotopic composition, and molecular markers. Marine Chemistry 24 163-191. 

Isotopic composition of individual elements in the natural media may noticeably change. These changes in water composition are considered to be isotopic processes. Three main reasons may be identified, which cause change in elements isotopic composition in natural water radioactive decay of elements themselves, fractionating of their atoms in mass transfer and mixing their atoms of different isotopic composition. 

Each element that has neither a stable isotope nor a characteristic natural isotopic composition is represented in this table by one of that element s commonly known radioisotopes identified by mass number and relative atomic mass. 

Elements with 1 predominant isotope can also, potentially, permit very precise atomic weight determinations since variations in isotopic composition or errors in its determination have a correspondingly small effect on the mass-spectrometrically determined value of the atomic weight. Nine elements have 1 isotope that is more than 99% abundant (H, He, N, O, Ar, V, La, Ta... 

Element has no stable nuclides the value given in parentheses is the atomic mass number of the isotope of longest known half-life. However, three such elements (Th, Pa and U) do have a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition, and for these an atomic weight is tabulated. 

Calculate the molar mass of an element, given its isotopic composition (Example E.3). 

The various spectral and physical properties of the compounds prepared, including their elemental analysis, and IR, NMR, and mass spectra (which contained the appropriate ions, each of the intensity demanded by the isotopic composition of the ion), all fully supported the formulation of the species as reported. With two exceptions, all of the new compounds were found to be colorless liquids, typically having a relatively short liquid range, and they are usually very volatile for their molecular weight. The two exceptions are (CFsliTe, which is yellow-green, and (CFsljTez, which is red-brown (21). 

The composition of the Earth was determined both by the chemical composition of the solar nebula, from which the sun and planets formed, and by the nature of the physical processes that concentrated materials to form planets. The bulk elemental and isotopic composition of the nebula is believed, or usually assumed to be identical to that of the sun. The few exceptions to this include elements and isotopes such as lithium and deuterium that are destroyed in the bulk of the sun s interior by nuclear reactions. The composition of the sun as determined by optical spectroscopy is similar to the majority of stars in our galaxy, and accordingly the relative abundances of the elements in the sun are referred to as "cosmic abundances." Although the cosmic abundance pattern is commonly seen in other stars there are dramatic exceptions, such as stars composed of iron or solid nuclear matter, as in the case with neutron stars. The... 

The interstitial air trapped during this process preserves a largely unaltered record of the composition of past atmospheres on time scales as short as decades and as long as several hundred thousand years. Such records have provided critical information about past variations in carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), carbon monoxide (CO), and the isotopic composition of some of these trace species. In addition, studies of the major elements of air nitrogen, oxygen, and argon, and their isotopic composition, have contributed... 

A few elements, among them fluorine and phosphoras, occur naturally with just one isotope, but most elements are isotopic mixtures. For example, element number 22 is titanium (Ti), a light and strong metal used in Jet engines and in artificial human Joints. There are five naturally occurring isotopes of Ti. Each one has 22 protons in its nuclei, but the number of neutrons varies from 24 to 28. In a chemical reaction, all isotopes of an element behave nearly identically. This means that the isotopic composition of an element remains essentially constant. The isotopic composition of Ti (number percentages) is... 

Figure 2-17 illustrates the range of isotopic composition. One element shown in the figure is tin, the element with the largest number of stable isotopes. 

Geological, mineralogical and geochemical features of these deposit types (distribution, age, associated volcanism, host and country rocks, fluid inclusions, opaque, gangue and hydrothermal alteration minerals, chemical features of ore fluids (temperature, salinity, pH, chemical composition, gaseous fugacity, isotopic compositions (O, D, S, Sr/ Sr, Pb), rare earth elements)) were summarized. 

In most alpha and mass spectrometric methods for which sample preparation is extensive and chemical recoveries can vary considerably from sample to sample, precise elemental concentrations are determined by isotope dilution methods (e.g., Faure 1977). This method is based on the determination of the isotopic composition of an element in a mixture of a known quantity of a tracer with an unknown quantity of the normal element. The tracer is a solution containing a known concentration of a particular element or elements for which isotopic composition has been changed by enrichment of one or more of its isotopes. 

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