Oxygen-17

Oxygen-17, 17O
General
Symbol17O
Namesoxygen-17, 17O, O-17
Protons (Z)8
Neutrons (N)9
Nuclide data
Natural abundance0.0373% SMOW[1]
0.0377421% (atmosphere[2])
Half-life (t1/2)stable
Isotope mass16.9991315 Da
Spin+5/2
Excess energy−809 keV
Binding energy131763 keV
Isotopes of oxygen
Complete table of nuclides

Oxygen-17 (17O) is a low-abundance, natural, stable isotope of oxygen (0.0373% in seawater; approximately twice as abundant as deuterium).

As the only stable isotope of oxygen possessing a nuclear spin (+5/2) and a favorable characteristic of field-independent relaxation in liquid water, 17O enables NMR studies of oxidative metabolic pathways through compounds containing 17O (i.e. metabolically produced H217O water by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria[3]) at high magnetic fields.

Water used as nuclear reactor coolant is subjected to intense neutron flux. Natural water starts out with 373 ppm of 17O; heavy water starts out incidentally enriched to about 550 ppm of oxygen-17. The neutron flux slowly converts 16O in the cooling water to 17O by neutron capture, increasing its concentration. The neutron flux slowly converts 17O (with much greater cross section) in the cooling water to carbon-14, an undesirable product that can escape to the environment:

17O (n,α) → 14C

Some tritium removal facilities make a point of replacing the oxygen of the water with natural oxygen (mostly 16O) to give the added benefit of reducing 14C production.[4][5]

  1. ^ Hoefs, Jochen (1997). Stable Isotope Geochemistry. Springer Verlag. ISBN 978-3-540-40227-5.
  2. ^ Blunier, Thomas; Bruce Barnett; Michael L. Bender; Melissa B. Hendricks (2002). "Biological oxygen productivity during the last 60,000 years from triple oxygen isotope measurements". Global Biogeochemical Cycles. 6. 16 (3): 1029. Bibcode:2002GBioC..16.1029B. doi:10.1029/2001GB001460.
  3. ^ Arai, T.; S. Nakao; K. Mori; K. Ishimori; I. Morishima; T. Miyazawa; B. Fritz-Zieroth (31 May 1990). "Cerebral Oxygen Utilization Analyzed by the Use of Oxygen-17 and its Nuclear Magnetic Resonance". Biochem. Biophys. Res. Commun. 169 (1): 153–158. doi:10.1016/0006-291X(90)91447-Z. PMID 2350339.
  4. ^ http://www.nrc.gov/docs/ML1016/ML101650129.pdf Estimation of Carbon-14 in Nuclear Power Plant Gaseous Effluents; EPRI; June 10, 2010
  5. ^ A Compact, Low Cost, Tritium Removal Plant for Candu-6 Reactors; S.K. Sood, C. Fong, and K.M. Kalyanam; Ontario Hydro