How do you find out the fractional abundance of an isotope?
December 20th, 2009 | by admin |For instance: Chlorine has two naturally occurring isotopes, chlorine-35 (isotopic mass 34.9689 amu) and chlorine-37 (isotopic mass 36.9659 amu). If chlorine has an atomic mass of 35.4527 amu, what is the percent abundance of each isotope? How would I work this problem?
To find the percent abundance of each isotope of chlorine proceed as follows:
Let x = fraction of Cl-35
then fraction of Cl-37 must be 1-x
so
34.9689x + (36.9659)(1-x) = 35.4527
and solve for x.
I hope this helps.
One Response to “How do you find out the fractional abundance of an isotope?”
By Auriga on Dec 20, 2009 | Reply
To find the percent abundance of each isotope of chlorine proceed as follows:
Let x = fraction of Cl-35
then fraction of Cl-37 must be 1-x
so
34.9689x + (36.9659)(1-x) = 35.4527
and solve for x.
I hope this helps.
References :
Personal knowledge of the author (college chemistry teacher).