Oxygen-17

Oxygen-17 Full table
General
Name, symbol	Oxygen-17,^17O
Neutrons	9
Protons	8
Nuclide data
Natural abundance	0.0373% SMOW[1] 0.0377421% (atmosphere[2])
Isotope mass	16.9991315 u
Spin	+5/2
Binding energy	131763 keV

Oxygen-17 is a low abundant isotope of oxygen (0.0373% in seawater; approx. twice as abundant as Deuterium). Being the only stable isotope of oxygen possessing a nuclear spin(+5/2) and a favorable characteristic of field-independent relaxation in liquid water, this enables NMR studies of oxidative metabolic pathways through compounds containing ¹⁷O at high magnetic fields (i.e. metabolically produced H₂¹⁷O water by oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria^[3]).

History

The isotope was first hypothesized and subsequently imaged by Patrick Blackett in Rutherford's lab 1924:^[4]

Of the nature of the integrated nucleus little can be said without further data. It must however have a mass 17, and provided no other nuclear electrons are gained or lost in the process, an atomic number 8. It ought therefore to be an isotope of oxygen. If it is stable it should exist on the earth.

— Patrick Blackett^[4]

It was a product out of the first man-made transmutation of ¹⁴N and ⁴He²⁺ conducted by Frederick Soddy and Ernest Rutherford in 1917-1919.^[5] Finally its natural abundance in earth atmosphere was detected in 1929 by Giauque and Johnson in absorption spectra.^[6]

Characteristics

• Excess mass: -809 keV
• Possible parent nuclides: β from ¹⁷N, electron capture from ¹⁷F

References

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..16c...3B. 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. Comm. 169 (1): 153–158. doi:10.1016/0006-291X(90)91447-Z. PMID 2350339.
4. Blackett, P. M. S. (1925). "The Ejection of Protons from Nitrogen Nuclei, Photographed by the Wilson Method". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series A 107 (742): 349–360. Bibcode:1925RSPSA.107..349B. doi:10.1098/rspa.1925.0029.
5. Rutherford, Ernest (1919). "Collision of alpha particles with light atoms IV. An anomalous effect in nitrogen.". Philosophical Magazine. 6th series 37: 581–587. doi:10.1080/14786440608635919.
6. Giauque, W. F.; Johnston, H. L. (1929). "AN ISOTOPE OF OXYGEN, MASS 17, IN THE EARTH'S ATMOSPHERE". J. Am. Chem. Soc. 51 (12): 3528–3534. doi:10.1021/ja01387a004.