RADIOACTIVE CHEMICAL ELEMENTS IN THE ATOMIC TABLE.
In the 1949 Report of the Atomic Weights Commission, a series of new elements were added to the Atomic Weights Table. Since these elements had been produced in the laboratory and were not discovered in nature, the atomic weight value of these artificial products would depend upon the production method. Since atomic weight is a property of an element as it occurs in nature, it would be incorrect to assign an atomic weight value to that element. As a result of that discussion, the Commission decided to provide only the mass number of the most stable (longest-lived) known isotope as the number to be associated with these entries in the Atomic Weights Table. As a function of time, the mass number associated with various elements has changed as longer-lived isotopes of a particular elements has been found in nature, or as improved half-life values of an element's isotopes might cause a shift in the longest-lived isotope from one mass number to another. In the 1957 Report of the Atomic Weights Commission, it was decided to discontinue the listing of the mass number in the Atomic Weights Table on the grounds that the kind of information supplied by the mass number is inconsistent with the primary purpose of the Table, i.e., to provide accurate values of ''these constants'' for use in chemical calculations. In addition to the Table of Atomic Weights, the Commission included an auxiliary Table of Radioactive Elements for the first time, where the entry would be the isotope of that element which was most stable, i.e., it had the longest known half-life. In their 1973 report, the Commission noted that the users of the Atomic Weights Table were dissatisfied with the omission of values in the Table for some elements and it was decided to reintroduce the mass number for elements. In their 1983 report, the Commission decided that radioactive elements were considered to lack a characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition, from which an atomic weight value could be calculated to five or more figure accuracy, without prior knowledge of the sample. These elements were again listed in the table with no further information, is., no mass number or atomic weight value. For the elements, which have no stable or long-lived isotopes, the data on radioactive half-lives and relative atomic masses for the nuclides of interest have been evaluated. The values of the half-lives their uncertainties are listed. The uncertainties are given in the last digit quoted of the half-life vale and shown in parentheses. The criteria for consideration of entries in this Table continue to be the same as it has been for over fifty years. It is the same criteria, which are used for all data that are evaluated for inclusion in the Atomic Weight's Table. If a report of data is published in a peer-reviewed journal, that data is evaluated and considered for inclusion in the appropriate table of the biennial report of the Atomic Weights Commission. As better data might become available in the future, the information that is contained in either of the tables may be modified. The information contained in the Table of Radioactive Elements should enable the user to calculate the atomic weight for any sample of radioactive material, which might have a variety of isotopic compositions. The atomic mass values have been taken from the 2003 Atomic Mass Table. Most of these half-lives have already been documented in various sources.
- Research Organization:
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- DOE/SC
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC02-98CH10886
- OSTI ID:
- 15020053
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-74880-2005-CP; R&D Project: 05055; KB0301041; TRN: US0504369
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 43RD IUPAC GENERAL ASSEMBLY; BEIJING, CHINA; 20050813 through 20050821
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Radioactive Elements in the Standard Atomic Weights Table.
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