Bromine Isotopes

The concept of isotopes is one of the most vital one in the field of chemistry. In this article, we shall know which are the stable and unstable bromine isotopes in detail.

Bromine is an important chemical element and has a symbol B_r. The chemical properties of bromine are quite unique and distinguished as compared to those of other elements. Here are some of the notable bromine properties which you should know:

• The atomic number of bromine is 35
• Elemental bromine is toxic as well as corrosive; whereas free bromine is crystalline in nature and does not have a color
• It is more reactive than iodine, but less reactive than chlorine
• It is highly soluble in acetic acid and carbon disulphide and is known to have intense and strong bleaching action with several other elements
• It has just 2 stable isotopes whereas there are around 23 radioisotopes

Though the main focus of this article is on its isotopes,we can understand that better only after we are clear with the meaning of the term ‘isotopes’.

Isotopes

The concept of isotopes was first suggested by Frederick Soddy way back in 1913 after studying radioactive decay chains thoroughly. Isotopes are defined as the variants of atoms of an elements which have unequal number of neutrons in them. If a particular element has two isotopes, than the mass number, or the number of nucleons in them, will not be the same. Now, you may want to know what exactly is the meaning of ‘nucleons’. Nucleons is the sum of total number of protons and total number of neutrons of the element.

So, Nucleons = (Number of Protons) + (Number of neutrons). If an element has isotopes which are radioactive in nature, then they are called radioisotopes. Tin is the element which has maximum number of stable isotopes which is 10. ⁷⁹Br and ⁸¹Br are the two stable isotopes of bromine.

Isotopes of Bromine

Bromine isotopes Br-79 and Br-81 have great application sin the field of medicine. While Br-81 has been useful for diagnostic purposes, Br-79 is helpful in radiotherapy after getting decayed into the radioisotope Br-77. Another known fact about bromine isotopes is that most of them are results of fission.

Here are some more bromine isotopes and their half-life that may interest you.

In general, the concept of isotopes is important to understand principles and fundamentals of advanced chemistry. So, my suggestion to those planning a career in chemistry would be to get your basics right so that you can go deep into this interesting subject and understand it thoroughly.