What are isotopes? What are the isotopes of carbon?

Hi Neeraj, An isotope is a form of a chemical element whose atomic nucleus contains a specific number of neutron s, in addition to the number of proton s that uniquely defines the element. The nuclei of most atom s contain neutrons as well as protons. (An exception is the common form of hydrogen, whose nucleus consists of a lone proton.) Every chemical element has more than one isotope. For any element, one of the isotopes is more abundant in nature than any of the others, although often multiple isotopes of a single element are mixed. Some carbon-14 is found in nature. An atom of carbon-14 contains 6 protons and 8 neutrons and is denoted 14 C. Over time, 14 C decays into 12 C. Sometimes the isotope of an element is denoted by writing the nucleon number after the chemical symbol, and not as a superscript. Thus, some texts will denote carbon-14 as C-14 or C14 instead of 14 C. Certain isotopes of elements are unstable, giving off ionizing radiation, also known as radioactivity. Such an isotope is called a radioisotope. Carbon-14 is a radioisotope of carbon. In the case of an element that is radioactive in all its known forms, such as uranium (U), certain isotopes are more radioactive than others, and/or give off different proportions of the various types of ionizing radiation. All the best.

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