Assume that 94% of hydrogen is in the form of protium, 4% is deuterium and 2% is tritium. Calculate the atomic mass.?

Question

431 views around the world

You can reuse this answer
Creative Commons License

Answer 1 · 2018-02-04T15:56:44

The atomic mass of hydrogen is 1.09 u.

The relative atomic mass is a weighted average of the individual atomic masses.

That is, we multiply each isotopic mass by its relative importance (fraction of the mixture).

The atomic masses are:

#""_1^1"H" = "1.008 u"#

#""_1^2"H" = "2.014 u"#

#""_1^3"H" = "3.016 u"#

Then

#"Atomic mass = (0.94 × 1.008 + 0.04 × 2.014 + 0.02 × 3.016) u"#

#"= (0.948 + 0.081 + 0.060) u = 1.09 u"#