Oxygen-17

Oxygen-17
General
Name, symbol Oxygen-17,17O
Neutrons 9
Protons 8
Nuclide data
Natural abundance 0.0373% SMOW[1]
0.0377421% (atmosphere[2])
Isotope mass 16.9991315 u
Spin 5/2
Binding energy 131763 keV keV

Oxygen-17 is a low abundant isotope of oxygen (0.0373% in seawater; approx. twice as abundant as Deuterium). Being the only stable isotope of oxygen possessing a nuclear spin and the unique characteristic of field-independent relaxation it enables NMR studies of metabolic pathways of compounds incorporating oxygen at high magnetic fields (i.e. metabolic H217O water produced by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria[3]).

History

The isotope was first hypothesized and subsequently imaged by Patrick Blackett in Rutherford's lab 1924:[4]

Of the nature of the integrated nucleus little can be said without further data. It must however have a mass 17, and provided no other nuclear electrons are gained or lost in the process, an atomic number 8. It ought therefore to be an isotope of oxygen. If it is stable it should exist on the earth.
—Patrick Blackett[4]

It was a product out of the first man-made transmutation of 14N and 4He2+ conducted by Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford in 1917-1919.[5] Finally its natural abundance in earth atmosphere was detected in 1929 by Giauque and Johnson in absorption spectra.[6]

Characteristics

References

  1. ^ Hoefs, Jochen (1997). Stable Isotope Geochemistry. Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-3540402275. 
  2. ^ Blunier, Thomas; Bruce Barnett, Michael L. Bender, Melissa B. Hendricks (2002). "Biological oxygen productivity during the last 60,000 years from triple oxygen isotope measurements". Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 6 16 (3). Bibcode 2002GBioC..16c...3B. doi:10.1029/2001GB001460. 
  3. ^ Arai, T.; S. Nakao, K. Mori, K. Ishimori, I. Morishima, T. Miyazawa, B. Fritz-Zieroth (31 May 1990). "CEREBRAL OXYGEN UTILIZATION ANALYZED BY THE USE OF OXYGEN-17 AND ITS NUCLEAR MAGNETIC RESONANCE". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 169 (1): 153–158. doi:10.1016/0006-291X(90)91447-Z. PMID 2350339. 
  4. ^ a b Blackett, P. M. S. (1925). "The Ejection of Protons from Nitrogen Nuclei, Photographed by the Wilson Method". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A 107 (742): 349–360. Bibcode 1925RSPSA.107..349B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1925.0029. 
  5. ^ Rutherford, Ernest (1919). "Collision of alpha particles with light atoms IV. An anomalous effect in nitrogen.". Philosophical Magazine. 6th series 37: 581–587. 
  6. ^ Giauque, W. F.; Johnston, H. L. (1929). "AN ISOTOPE OF OXYGEN, MASS 17, IN THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 51 (12): 3528–3534. doi:10.1021/ja01387a004. 
Lighter:
oxygen-16		 Oxygen-17 is an
isotope of oxygen		 Heavier:
oxygen-18
Decay product of:
nitrogen-17, fluorine-17		 Decay chain
of Oxygen-17		 Decays to:
stable