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Chapter 3: Problem 32

Describe how you would determine the isotopic abundance of an element from its mass spectrum.

Short Answer

Expert verified
The isotopic abundance of an element is determined from its mass spectrum by interpreting the peaks on the graph. Each peak corresponds to an isotope of the element. The position of the peak on the x-axis gives the mass number, and the size of the peak on the y-axis gives the relative abundance. The isotopic abundance is then calculated as the proportion of each isotope relative to the total amount of the element.

Step by step solution

01

Understanding what is a Mass Spectrum

A mass spectrum is a graph produced by mass spectrometry, where ionized particles are separated according to their mass to charge ratio. In the graph, the horizontal axis (x-axis) represents the mass-to-charge ratio (m/z), and the vertical axis (y-axis) represents the relative abundance of each isotope.
02

Interpretation of the Mass Spectrum

Each peak on the mass spectrum indicates an isotope. The position of the peak on the horizontal axis gives the mass number of the isotope, while the size of the peak on the vertical axis shows the relative abundance of the isotope.
03

Calculating the Isotopic Abundance

The isotopic abundance can be calculated by comparing the size of each peak (each isotope) to the total size of all peaks. This gives the proportion of each isotope compared to the total amount of the element.
04

Example

For instance, if the mass spectrum of an element shows two peaks, one at m/z = 20 with a relative intensity of 25, and another at m/z = 22 with a relative intensity of 75, then the isotopic abundances are 25% for the isotope with mass number 20 and 75% for the isotope with mass number 22.

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Most popular questions from this chapter

Nitric oxide (NO) reacts with oxygen gas to form nitrogen dioxide \(\left(\mathrm{NO}_{2}\right),\) a dark-brown gas: $$ 2 \mathrm{NO}(g)+\mathrm{O}_{2}(g) \longrightarrow 2 \mathrm{NO}_{2}(g) $$ In one experiment 0.886 mole of \(\mathrm{NO}\) is mixed with 0.503 mole of \(\mathrm{O}_{2}\). Calculate which of the two reactants is the limiting reagent. Calculate also the number of moles of \(\mathrm{NO}_{2}\) produced.

What are the empirical formulas of the compounds with the following compositions? (a) 2.1 percent \(\mathrm{H}\), 65.3 percent \(\mathrm{O}, 32.6\) percent \(\mathrm{S}\) (b) 20.2 percent \(\mathrm{Al}\), 79.8 percent \(\mathrm{Cl}\)

Each copper(II) sulfate unit is associated with five water molecules in crystalline copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate \(\left(\mathrm{CuSO}_{4} \cdot 5 \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}\right)\). When this compound is heated in air above \(100^{\circ} \mathrm{C},\) it loses the water molecules and also its blue color: $$ \mathrm{CuSO}_{4} \cdot 5 \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O} \longrightarrow \mathrm{CuSO}_{4}+5 \mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O} $$ If \(9.60 \mathrm{~g}\) of \(\mathrm{CuSO}_{4}\) are left after heating \(15.01 \mathrm{~g}\) of the blue compound, calculate the number of moles of \(\mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}\) originally present in the compound.

A sample of a compound of \(\mathrm{Cl}\) and \(\mathrm{O}\) reacts with an excess of \(\mathrm{H}_{2}\) to give \(0.233 \mathrm{~g}\) of \(\mathrm{HCl}\) and \(0.403 \mathrm{~g}\) of \(\mathrm{H}_{2} \mathrm{O}\). Determine the empirical formula of the compound.

Calculate the number of \(\mathrm{C}, \mathrm{H},\) and \(\mathrm{O}\) atoms in \(1.50 \mathrm{~g}\) of glucose \(\left(\mathrm{C}_{6} \mathrm{H}_{12} \mathrm{O}_{6}\right)\), a sugar.
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