A Relation Between Atomic Number and Isotopic Number for Stable Isotopes

1938 ◽  
Vol 53 (10) ◽  
pp. 846-846
Author(s):  
G. E. Gibson ◽  
Harrison Brown
Author(s):  
George K. Schweitzer ◽  
Lester L. Pesterfield

The elements making up the Actinoid Metals are those with atomic numbers from 89 through 103: Ac, Th, Pa, U, Np, Pu, Am, Cm, Bk, Cf, Es, Fm, Md, No, and Lr. The name is meant to parallel the lanthanoids. They are generally abbreviated as An. Their valence electron structures are 7s26d0−25f0−14. These elements resemble the lanthanoids somewhat, but they have a much wider variation in oxidation states. Nor do they resemble each other to the extent that the lanthanoids do, this being a result of the oxidation state variations. Ac resembles La greatly, but Th, Pa, and U resemble their vertical congeners (Hf, Ta, W) more than they resemble Ce, Pr, and Nd. From Np onwards, the resemblance to the lanthanoids increases such that by Am, the actinoid elements are behaving very similarly, showing a predominant oxidation state of III. All of this occurs because the 7s, 6d, and 5f levels are much closer in energy than the 6s, 5d, and 4f levels. Table 18.1 lists the actinoids with several of their pertinent characteristics. No stable isotopes of any of these elements exist, the last element in the Periodic Table with a stable isotope being Bi (Bi-209). However, some of the An elements have isotopes with very long half lives, which means that they are found in nature in relative abundance, most notably as Th-232 (1010.1 years), U-235 (108.8 years), and U-238 (109.7 years). Others are products of the decay of the above isotopes, so even though they are shorter lived, they persist in nature since they are continually being produced. The most important nuclides of this type are Ac-227 (21.8 years) and Pa-231 (104.5 years), both coming from U-235 decay. In U ores, very small amounts of Np-237 (106.3 years), Np-239 (2.4 days), and Pu-239(104.3 years) arise from the interaction of neutrons with U isotopes. Isotopes of the elements beyond U are produced artificially, Np and Pu by neutron capture by U, Am and Cm by multiple neutron capture by Pu, and elements beyond Cm by further neutron captures or bombardment of lower atomic number actinoids with ions of He, B, C, N, or O.


Author(s):  
M.D. Ball ◽  
H. Lagace ◽  
M.C. Thornton

The backscattered electron coefficient η for transmission electron microscope specimens depends on both the atomic number Z and the thickness t. Hence for specimens of known atomic number, the thickness can be determined from backscattered electron coefficient measurements. This work describes a simple and convenient method of estimating the thickness and the corrected composition of areas of uncertain atomic number by combining x-ray microanalysis and backscattered electron intensity measurements.The method is best described in terms of the flow chart shown In Figure 1. Having selected a feature of interest, x-ray microanalysis data is recorded and used to estimate the composition. At this stage thickness corrections for absorption and fluorescence are not performed.


Author(s):  
Robert E. Ogilvie

The search for an empirical absorption equation begins with the work of Siegbahn (1) in 1914. At that time Siegbahn showed that the value of (μ/ρ) for a given element could be expressed as a function of the wavelength (λ) of the x-ray photon by the following equationwhere C is a constant for a given material, which will have sudden jumps in value at critial absorption limits. Siegbahn found that n varied from 2.66 to 2.71 for various solids, and from 2.66 to 2.94 for various gases.Bragg and Pierce (2) , at this same time period, showed that their results on materials ranging from Al(13) to Au(79) could be represented by the followingwhere μa is the atomic absorption coefficient, Z the atomic number. Today equation (2) is known as the “Bragg-Pierce” Law. The exponent of 5/2(n) was questioned by many investigators, and that n should be closer to 3. The work of Wingardh (3) showed that the exponent of Z should be much lower, p = 2.95, however, this is much lower than that found by most investigators.


Author(s):  
Werner P. Rehbach ◽  
Peter Karduck

In the EPMA of soft x rays anomalies in the background are found for several elements. In the literature extremely high backgrounds in the region of the OKα line are reported for C, Al, Si, Mo, and Zr. We found the same effect also for Boron (Fig. 1). For small glancing angles θ, the background measured using a LdSte crystal is significantly higher for B compared with BN and C, although the latter are of higher atomic number. It would be expected, that , characteristic radiation missing, the background IB (bremsstrahlung) is proportional Zn by variation of the atomic number of the target material. According to Kramers n has the value of unity, whereas Rao-Sahib and Wittry proposed values between 1.12 and 1.38 , depending on Z, E and Eo. In all cases IB should increase with increasing atomic number Z. The measured values are in discrepancy with the expected ones.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marko J. Spasojevic ◽  
Sören Weber1

Stable carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) isotopes in plants are important indicators of plant water use efficiency and N acquisition strategies. While often regarded as being under environmental control, there is growing evidence that evolutionary history may also shape variation in stable isotope ratios (δ13C and δ15N) among plant species. Here we examined patterns of foliar δ13C and δ15N in alpine tundra for 59 species in 20 plant families. To assess the importance of environmental controls and evolutionary history, we examined if average δ13C and δ15N predictably differed among habitat types, if individual species exhibited intraspecific trait variation (ITV) in δ13C and δ15N, and if there were a significant phylogenetic signal in δ13C and δ15N. We found that variation among habitat types in both δ13C and δ15N mirrored well-known patterns of water and nitrogen limitation. Conversely, we also found that 40% of species exhibited no ITV in δ13C and 35% of species exhibited no ITV in δ15N, suggesting that some species are under stronger evolutionary control. However, we only found a modest signal of phylogenetic conservatism in δ13C and no phylogenetic signal in δ15N suggesting that shared ancestry is a weaker driver of tundra wide variation in stable isotopes. Together, our results suggest that both evolutionary history and local environmental conditions play a role in determining variation in δ13C and δ15N and that considering both factors can help with interpreting isotope patterns in nature and with predicting which species may be able to respond to rapidly changing environmental conditions.


Author(s):  
J. BERRY, ◽  
C. COOK, ◽  
T.F. DOMINGUES, ◽  
J. EHLERINGER, ◽  
L. FLANAGAN, ◽  
...  

2020 ◽  
Vol 637 ◽  
pp. 225-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
MA Ladds ◽  
MH Pinkerton ◽  
E Jones ◽  
LM Durante ◽  
MR Dunn

Marine food webs are structured, in part, by predator gape size. Species found in deep-sea environments may have evolved such that they can consume prey of a wide range of sizes, to maximise resource intake in a low-productivity ecosystem. Estimates of gape size are central to some types of ecosystem model that determine which prey are available to predators, but cannot always be measured directly. Deep-sea species are hypothesized to have larger gape sizes than shallower-water species relative to their body size and, because of pronounced adaptive foraging behaviour, show only a weak relationship between gape size and trophic level. Here we present new data describing selective morphological measurements and gape sizes of 134 osteichthyan and chondrichthyan species from the deep sea (200-1300 m) off New Zealand. We describe how gape size (height, width and area) varied with factors including fish size, taxonomy (class and order within a class) and trophic level estimated from stable isotopes. For deep-sea species, there was a strong relationship between gape size and fish size, better predicted by body mass than total length, which varied by taxonomic group. Results show that predictions of gape size can be made from commonly measured morphological variables. No relationship between gape size and trophic level was found, likely a reflection of using trophic level estimates from stable isotopes as opposed to the commonly used estimates from FishBase. These results support the hypothesis that deep-sea fish are generalists within their environment, including suspected scavenging, even at the highest trophic levels.


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