Mass-Independent Isotope Effects

Abstract

Three fundamental properties of atomic nuclei-mass, spin (and related magnetic moment), and volume-are the source of isotope effects. The mostly deserved and popular, with almost hundred-year history, is the mass-dependent isotope effect. The first mass-independent isotope effect which chemically discriminates isotopes by their nuclear spins and nuclear magnetic moments rather than by their masses was detected in 1976. It was named as the magnetic isotope effect because it is controlled by magnetic interaction, i.e., electron-nuclear hyperfine coupling in the paramagnetic species, the reaction intermediates. The effect follows from the universal physical property of chemical reactions to conserve angular momentum (spin) of electrons and nuclei. It is now detected for oxygen, silicon, sulfur, germanium, tin, mercury, magnesium, calcium, zinc, and uranium in a great variety of chemical and biochemical reactions including those of medical and ecological importance. Another mass-independent isotope effect was detected in 1983 as a deviation of isotopic distribution in reaction products from that which would be expected from the mass-dependent isotope effect. On the physical basis, it is in fact a mass-dependent effect, but it surprisingly results in isotope fractionation which is incompatible with that predicted by traditional mass-dependent effects. It is supposed to be a function of dynamic parameters of reaction and energy relaxation in excited states of products. The third, nuclear volume mass-independent isotope effect is detected in the high-resolution atomic and molecular spectra and in the extraction processes, but there are no unambiguous indications of its importance as an isotope fractionation factor in chemical reactions.