Isotopes

Question 1 What are isotopes?

Question 2 Give examples of isotopes?

Question 3 Give few application of isotopes?

Question 4 why isotopes have same chemical properties?

Question 5 Why isotopes have different physical properties?

Isotopes

Isotopes are atoms of same element having same atomic number but different mass numbers.

For Ex:
1)Isotopes of Hydrogen

₁H¹   ₁H²  ₁H³

	Protium	Deuterium	Tritium
Protons	1	1	1
Neutrons	0	1	2
Electrons	1	1	1

2)Isotopes of Chlorine

³⁷Cl     ³⁵Cl

3)Isotopes of Carbon
¹⁴C   ¹²C   ¹³C

4)Isotopes of Oxygen
¹⁶O   ¹⁷O   ¹⁸O
Chemical properties of all the isotopes of an element are same.

Chemical properties depend on number of protons and electrons.Since isotopes of an element contain same number of protons and electrons therefore the chemical properties are same.

The physical properties of an element depend on the mass of the atoms.Due to the presence of different number of neutrons,the masses of all isotopes are different.Therefore,the physical properties are different.

Application of Isotopes

1)An isotope Uranium is used as a fuel in nuclear reactor.

2)An isotope of cobalt is used in treatment of cancer.

3)An isotope of iodine is used in treatment of goitre.