Isotopes of nitrogen

Natural Nitrogen (N) consists of two stable isotopes, nitrogen-14, which makes up the vast majority of naturally occurring nitrogen, and nitrogen-15. Fourteen radioactive isotopes (radioisotopes) have also been found so far, with atomic masses ranging from 10 to 25, and one nuclear isomer, ^11mN. All of these radioisotopes are short-lived, with the longest-lived one being nitrogen-13 with a half-life of 9.965 minutes. All of the others have half-lives below 7.15 seconds, with most of these being below five-eighths of a second. Most of the isotopes with atomic mass numbers below 14 decay to isotopes of carbon, while most of the isotopes with masses above 15 decay to isotopes of oxygen. The shortest-lived known isotope is nitrogen-10, with a half-life of abut 2.3 microseconds.

The standard atomic mass of nitrogen is 14.0067 atomic mass units.

Natural isotopes

Nitrogen-14

Nitrogen-14 is one of two stable (non-radioactive) isotopes of the chemical element nitrogen, which maked up about 99.636% of natural nitrogen.

Nitrogen-14 is one of the very few stable nuclides with both an odd number of protons and of neutrons (seven each). Each of these contributes a nucler spin of plus of minus spin 1/2, giving the nucleus a total magnetic spin of one.

Like all elements heavier than lithium, the original source of nitrogen-14 and nitrogen-15 in the Universe is believed to be stellar nucleosynthesis, where they are produced as part of the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle.

Nitrogen-14 is the source of naturally-occurring carbon-14. Some kinds of cosmic radiation causes a nuclear reaction with nitrogen-14 in the upper atmosphere of the Earth, creating the carbon-14. This radioisotope decays back to nitrogen-14 after a half-life of several thousand years.

Nitrogen-15

Nitrogen-15 is a rare stable isotope of nitrogen. This istope is often used in agricultural and medical research, for example in the Meselson–Stahl experiment to establish the nature of DNA replication.^[1] An extension of this research resulted in development of DNA-based stable-isotope probing, which allows examination of links between metabolic function and taxonomic identity of microorganisms in the environment, without the need for culture isolation.^[2][3] Nitrogen-15 is extensively used to trace mineral nitrogen compounds (particularly fertilizers) in the environment and when combined with the use of other isotopic labels, is also a very important tracer for describing the fate of nitrogenous organic pollutants.^[4][5]

Nitrogen-15 is frequently used in nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), because unlike the more abundant splinless nitrogen-14, it has a fractional nuclear spin of one-half, which makes it observatable by NMR. Proteins can be isotopically labelled by cultivating them in a medium containing nitrogen-15 as the only source of nitrogen. In addition, nitrogen-15 is used to label proteins in quantitative proteomics (e.g. SILAC).

Two sourses of nitrogen-15 is by the positron emission of oxygen-15^[6] and the beta decay of carbon-15.

Table

nuclide symbol	Z(p)	N(n)	isotopic mass (u)	half-life	decay mode(s)[7]	daughter isotope(s)[n 1]	nuclear spin	representative isotopic composition (mole fraction)	range of natural variation (mole fraction)
	excitation energy
10N	7	3	10.04165(43)	200(140)×10−24 s [2.3(16) MeV]	p	9 C	(2−)
11N	7	4	11.02609(5)	590(210)×10−24 s [1.58(+75−52) MeV]	p	10 C	1/2+
11mN	740(60) keV			6.90(80)×10−22 s			1/2−
12N	7	5	12.0186132(11)	11.000(16) ms	β+ (96.5%)	12 C	1+
					β+, α (3.5%)	8 Be[n 2]
13N[n 3]	7	6	13.00573861(29)	9.965(4) min	β+	13 C	1/2−
14N	7	7	14.0030740048(6)	Stable			1+	0.99636(20)	0.99579–0.99654
15N	7	8	15.0001088982(7)	Stable			1/2−	0.00364(20)	0.00346–0.00421
16N	7	9	16.0061017(28)	7.13(2) s	β− (99.99%)	16 O	2−
					β−, α (.001%)	12 C
17N	7	10	17.008450(16)	4.173(4) s	β−, n (95.0%)	16 O	1/2−
					β− (4.99%)	17 O
					β−, α (.0025%)	13 C
18N	7	11	18.014079(20)	622(9) ms	β− (76.9%)	18 O	1−
					β−, α (12.2%)	14 C
					β−, n (10.9%)	17 O
19N	7	12	19.017029(18)	271(8) ms	β−, n (54.6%)	18 O	(1/2−)
					β− (45.4%)	19 O
20N	7	13	20.02337(6)	130(7) ms	β−, n (56.99%)	19O
					β− (43.00%)	20O
21N	7	14	21.02711(10)	87(6) ms	β−, n (80.0%)	20O	1/2−#
					β− (20.0%)	21O
22N	7	15	22.03439(21)	13.9(14) ms	β− (65.0%)	22O
					β−, n (35.0%)	21O
23N	7	16	23.04122(32)#	14.5(24) ms [14.1(+12−15) ms]	β−	23O	1/2−#
24N	7	17	24.05104(43)#	<52 ns	n	23N
25N	7	18	25.06066(54)#	<260 ns			1/2−#

1. ^ Bold for stable isotopes
2. ^ Immediately decays into two alpha particles for a net reaction of ¹²N -> 3⁴He + e⁺
3. ^ Used in positron emission tomography

Notes

• The precision of the isotope abundances and atomic mass is limited through variations. The given ranges should be applicable to any normal terrestrial material.
• Values marked # are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from systematic trends. Spins with weak assignment arguments are enclosed in parentheses.
• Uncertainties are given in concise form in parentheses after the corresponding last digits. Uncertainty values denote one standard deviation, except isotopic composition and standard atomic mass from IUPAC which use expanded uncertainties.

References

1. ^ Meselson M., Stahl F.W. (1958). "The replication of DNA in E. coli". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 44: 671–682. doi:10.1073/pnas.44.7.671. PMC 528642. http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/articlerender.fcgi?tool=pmcentrez&artid=528642. 
2. ^ Radajewski S., McDonald I.R., Murrell J.C. (2003). "Stable-isotope probing of nucleic acids: a window to the function of uncultured microorganisms". Curr. Opin. Biotechnol 14: 296–302. 
3. ^ Cupples, A.M., E.A. Shaffer, J.C. Chee-Sanford, and G.K. Sims. 2007. DNA buoyant density shifts during 15N DNA stable isotope probing. Microbiological Res. 162:328-334.
4. ^ Marsh, K. L., G. K. Sims, and R. L. Mulvaney. 2005. Availability of urea to autotrophic ammonia-oxidizing bacteria as related to the fate of 14C- and 15N-labeled urea added to soil. Biol. Fert. Soil. 42:137-145.
5. ^ Bichat, F., G.K. Sims, and R.L. Mulvaney. 1999. Microbial utilization of heterocyclic nitrogen from atrazine. Soil Sci. Soc. Am. J. 63:100-110.
6. ^ CRC HANDBOOK of CHEMISTRY and PHYSICS, 64 th EDITION, 1983-1984; page B-234
7. ^ http://www.nucleonica.net/unc.aspx

• Isotope masses from:
  • G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon (2003). "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties". Nuclear Physics A 729: 3–128. Bibcode 2003NuPhA.729....3A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf. 
• Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from:
  • J. R. de Laeter, J. K. Böhlke, P. De Bièvre, H. Hidaka, H. S. Peiser, K. J. R. Rosman and P. D. P. Taylor (2003). "Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry 75 (6): 683–800. doi:10.1351/pac200375060683. http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/75/6/0683/pdf/. 
  • M. E. Wieser (2006). "Atomic weights of the elements 2005 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry 78 (11): 2051–2066. doi:10.1351/pac200678112051. http://iupac.org/publications/pac/78/11/2051/pdf/. Lay summary. 
• Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from the following sources. See editing notes on this article's talk page.
  • G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon (2003). "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties". Nuclear Physics A 729: 3–128. Bibcode 2003NuPhA.729....3A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf. 
  • National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 2.1 database". Brookhaven National Laboratory. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/. Retrieved September 2005. 
  • N. E. Holden (2004). "Table of the Isotopes". In D. R. Lide. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed.). CRC Press. Section 11. ISBN 978-0849304859. 

Isotopes of carbon	Isotopes of nitrogen	Isotopes of oxygen
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