What is the difference between a radioisotope and a stable isotope

An Isotope of carbon would be carbon This atom is an isotope because it has 7 neutrons instead of 6. Related questions How would you find the atomic number, atomic mass, protons, neutrons and electrons for ions and Question f36d4. How are isotopes of elements formed? What radioactive isotopes are naturally occurring? Fractionation of the heavy and light stable isotopes is important because it a produces variation in the stable isotope ratio of different element pools and b establishes an isotope signal that can indicate the existence or magnitude of key processes involved with elemental cycling.

University Ave. Visit Campus. Download Viewbook. But, because it is radioactive, its presence can be detected. Iodine thus became one of the earliest radioactive tracers. How can different isotopes of an element be produced? How can isotopes be produced--especially radioisotopes, which can serve many useful purposes? There are two basic methods: separation and synthesis.

Some isotopes occur in nature. If radioactive, these usually are radioisotopes with very long half-lives. Uranium , for example, makes up about 0. The difficulty is that all these forms of uranium, because they all have the same number of electrons, will have identical chemical behavior: they will bind in identical fashion to other atoms.

Chemical separation, developing a chemical reaction that will bind only uranium atoms, will separate out uranium atoms, but not distinguish among different isotopes of uranium.

The only difference among the uranium isotopes is their atomic weight. A method had to be developed that would sort atoms according to weight. One initial proposal was to use a centrifuge. The basic idea is simple: spin the uranium atoms as if they were on a very fast merry-go-round. The energy liberated in the form change can be measured with a Geiger counter or with photographic film.

Each radioisotope has a characteristic disintegration or semi-life period. Energy may be liberated mostly in the form of alpha helium nuclei , beta, electrons or positrons , or gamma electromagnetic energy rays. Several unstable and artificial radioactive isotopes have medical uses. For instance, a technetium isotope 99m Tc may be used to identify blocked blood vessels. Various natural radioactive isotopes are used to determine chronologies, such as the archeological kind 14 C.