Resumen de Determination of the Natural Abundances of Krypton and Xenon Isotopes Using Mass Spectrometry: A Demonstration of Isotopes and the Basis of Atomic Mass
David N. Blauch, Merlyn D. Schuh, Felix A. Carroll
This paper describes the use of a gas chromatograph-mass spectrometer to demonstrate the existence of isotopes to students in an introductory chemistry course. Fragmentation reactions are avoided through the use of a noble gas (krypton or xenon) as the analyte. Students are able to readily identify the naturally occurring isotopes of the noble gas, and the quantitative mass spectrometric data may be analyzed to calculate the natural abundance of each isotope and the mean atomic mass of the noble gas.
