What Is Deuterium?

Deuterium, isotope of hydrogen (H), also known as deuterium, the element symbol is generally D or 2H. The deuterium nucleus has a proton and a neutron, and its relative atomic weight is twice that of ordinary hydrogen. There is 0.02% of deuterium in hydrogen, and its content in nature is about one-seventh of that of ordinary hydrogen. Deuterium is used in thermonuclear reactions, and beta rays are emitted during fusion to form helium with a mass of 3, which is used as a tracer atom in chemical and biological research work. Deuterium is called "the natural fuel of the future."

Chinese name: deuterium
English name: deuterium
nickname: Deuterium

Chemical formula: D or 2H
Molecular weight: 2.014
Density: 0.180g / L

Chinese Characters of Deuterium

Basic definition of deuterium

Deuterium (name): One of the isotopes of hydrogen, used in thermonuclear reactions. Formerly known as "heavy (hydrogen)", it is a colorless and odorless gas at room temperature.

Detailed explanation of deuterium

Deuterium (chemical term): An isotope of hydrogen (H) whose relative atomic mass is twice that of ordinary light hydrogen. A small amount exists in natural water for nuclear reactions and is used as a tracer atom in chemical and biological research (Deuterium)-also known as "deuterium", element symbol D or H2. ^[1]

Deuterium dialect collection

Cantonese: dou1;

Glyph comparison (Figure 3) ^[2] Hakka: [Hanyu Pinyin] dau1 do1;

Chaozhou dialect: dao1 (tau). ^[1]

Deuterium properties

Main uses of deuterium

Deuterium compounds Special light bulbs, nuclear research, bombardment particles of deuteron accelerators, tracers.

Common deuterium production method

(1) Electrolysis by heavy water.

(2) Cryogenic refining from liquid hydrogen.

Physicochemical properties of deuterium

[Triple point] -254.4 ;

[Liquid density] (equilibrium state, -252.8 ): 0.169g / cm3;

[Specific heat capacity] (101.325kPa, 21.2 ° C): 5.987m3 / kg

[Gas-liquid volume ratio] (15 , 100kPa): 974L / L;

[Compression factor]:

Pressure (kPa)

100

1000

5000

10000;

Temperature ()

1.0087

1.0008

1.0060

1.0057

1.0296

1.0600

1.0555;

[Critical temperature]: -234.8 ;

[Critical pressure] 1664.8kPa;

[Critical density] 66.8g / cm3;

[Heat of melting] (-254.5 ° C) (equilibrium state): 48.84kJ / kg;

[Gasification heat] Hv (-249.5 ): 305kJ / kg;

[Specific heat capacity] (101.335kPa, 25 , gas): Cp = 7.243kJ / (kg · ), Cv = 5.178kJ / (kg · );

[Specific heat ratio] (101.325kPa, 25 ° C, gas): Cp / Cv = 1.40;

[Steam pressure]

(Normal state, 17.703): 10.67kPa;

(Normal state, 21.621): 53.33kPa;

(Normal state, 24.249K): 119.99kPa;

[Viscosity]

(Gas, normal state, 101.325kPa, 0 ° C): 0.010lmPa · S;

(Liquid, equilibrium, -252.8 ): 0.040mPa · s;

[Surface tension] (equilibrium state, -252.8 ): 3.72mN / m;

Thermal Conductivity

(Gas 101.325kPa, 0 ° C): 0.1289w / (m · K);

(Liquid, -252.8 ): 1264W / (m · K);

[Refractive index] nv (101.325kPa, 25 ° C): 1.0001265;

[Combustion limit in air] 5% to 75% (volume);

[Flammability level] 4;

[Toxicity level] 0;

[Explosiveness level] 1; Heavy hydrogen is a colorless, odorless and non-toxic flammable gas at normal temperature and pressure, and is a stable isotope of ordinary hydrogen. It contains 0.0139% to 0.0157% in the hydrogen of ordinary water. Its chemical properties are exactly the same as ordinary hydrogen, but due to its large mass, the reaction speed is lower.

Deuterium safety protection

Deuterium is non-toxic and suffocating. Heavy hydrogen is flammable and explosive, so we must pay sufficient attention to this. Bottled gas products are filled with high pressure gas, and should be decompressed and decompressed before use. Packed cylinders have a useful life, and all expired cylinders must be sent to a department for safety inspection before they can continue to be used. When the exhaust gas is used in each bottle, the residual pressure in the bottle should be kept at 0.5MPa, and the minimum pressure should not be less than 0.25MPa. The valve of the bottle should be closed to ensure the gas quality and use safety. Bottled gas products should be sorted and stacked during transportation, storage, and use. It is strictly prohibited to stack flammable gas and combustion-supporting gas together. Do not approach near open flames and heat sources. Do not approach the fire, do not get oily wax, do not expose to the sun, and do not throw away. Do not strike, it is strictly forbidden to initiate arc or arc on the cylinder, and brutal loading and unloading is strictly prohibited.

Deuterium discovery history

At the end of 1931, American scientist Harold Clayton Urey discovered heavy hydrogen (deuterium, D) by spectroscopic detection after evaporating a large amount of liquid hydrogen. Yuri was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934.

According to Yuri's suggestion, deuterium was named "Deuterium", which means "second" in Greek. ^[3]

Introduction to deuterium and deuterium

The corresponding antimatter of deuterium is antideuterium, and its nucleus has an antiproton and antineutron. The antideuteron was first made by the European Committee for Nuclear Research (CERN) and the Bookhaven National Laboratory in the United States in 1965, but so far A complete anti-deuterium atom with a positron has not yet been successfully created. ^[4]

Deuterium finder

The word isotope in the Spanish language isotope was used by the Englishman F. Soddy (1877-1956) in 1911. Later, another Englishman, FW Aston (1877-1945), built a mass spectrometer in 1919, which could be used to separate particles of different masses and determine their mass. This brings a great step forward in the study of isotopes. Aston has found many isotopes of elements using mass spectrometers. Among 71 elements, he has found 202 isotopes one after another. This has helped us to understand isotopes and began to accumulate a lot of data.

The most interesting thing is whether hydrogen isotope. In order to find the isotopes of hydrogen, people have spent more than ten years in succession, but have not reached a positive result. At the beginning of 1931, some people deduced theoretically that there should be a hydrogen isotope of mass 2 and estimated the ratio of 2H: 1H = 1: 4500. At the end of 1931, Professor Yuri and his assistants at Columbia University in the United States slowly evaporated four liters of liquid hydrogen at 14 ° K at the triple point, leaving only a few cubic millimeters of liquid hydrogen at the end, and then using spectral analysis. As a result, in the spectral line of the hydrogen atom spectrum, some new spectral lines were obtained, and their positions coincided exactly with the expected hydrogen spectral line of mass 2, and thus deuterium was found. Yuri gave it a special name, called "deuterium" (Chinese translation for "deuterium", symbol "D"). Later, British and American scientists discovered that "tritium" (Chinese translation: "", symbol "T") with a mass of 3 is another important hydrogen isotope with radioactivity.

The discovery of deuterium was a major event in the scientific community in the early 1930s. Yuri was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1934. His reputation has since leapt, but he hasn't stopped, and has continued to complete a lot of important research work. Now the most common is deuterium oxide (also known as heavy water). Its main characteristics: the temperature of the maximum density of deuterium oxide is 11.22 (common water is 4.08 ), the melting point is 3.82 , and the boiling point is 101.42 . These characteristics are similar to ordinary water. They are all very different. Heavy water is easy to obtain with electrolyzed water, so Northern Europe with low electricity costs can produce it in large quantities. Later, heavy water became one of the important materials for making hydrogen bombs.

The above briefly describes deuterium and heavy water, in order to draw people's attention to the chemist Yuri. He died at the age of 86 on January 6, 1981. The following (this article was published in 1982-Editor's Note) briefly introduces his life and achievements, showing our respect for him. Harold Clayton Urey was born on April 29, 1893 in a peasant family in Indiana, northwestern United States. After graduating from high school, he taught for three years in a rural elementary school. Later he entered Montana State University, where he majored in biology at the time, with chemistry as an associate department. However, the main achievement of his life was provided by the subsidiary chemistry. He graduated with a scholarship and studied at the University of California from 1921 to 1923. He achieved excellent results and obtained a doctorate at the age of thirty. In 1923, he received a scholarship to study abroad, and went to Denmark to talk with Professor Ball to study atomic structure theory. After returning home, Yuri was a lecturer at Johns Hopkins University. In 1929 he joined Columbia University as an associate professor in the Department of Chemistry, where he collaborated with others and wrote a monograph titled Atoms, Molecules and Quanta. This is one of the famous books on quantum mechanics written in English. This shows that Yuri's achievements in quantum mechanics and thermodynamics, as well as nuclear structure, have already reached a fairly high level. During this time, he discovered one of the amazing hydrogen isotopes, deuterium, by spectrometry. Yuri has since become a recognized authority on isotopic chemistry. After his research, the separation of isotopes began to have a chemical method. Because of the success of this method, many isotopes have become chemical, biological, and geological tracers. During World War II, he used his extensive knowledge of isotope chemistry to play a major role in the final victory over Japan. In the past, the separation of isotopes was performed on a laboratory scale within a very small range. During World War II, Yuri led a group of assistants to enable heavy water separation and large-scale separation of uranium isotopes. This technical success made the production of the first atomic bombs possible. After the war, Yuri accepted an offer from the University of Chicago as a professor. Here he published an extremely important paper entitled "Thermodynamic Properties of Isotopic Matter". Since then, Yuri has used highly accurate mass spectrometers to examine the percentage of oxygen isotopes in geology and the ocean. Thanks to the success of this technology, he was able to calculate the temperature of the ocean fairly accurately 70 million years ago.

He published data on element abundance in the universe in 1952, developing elemental origin and cosmological theories. Earth's monograph "The Planets: Their Origin and Development" (The Planets: Their Origin and Development), discusses the doctrine of the evolution of the solar system from chemical processes, pointing out that the planets were gathered by dust surrounding the primitive sun. Earth's original atmosphere should be similar to Jupiter's atmosphere, consisting mainly of methane, ammonia, and hydrogen. The earth's atmosphere is formed through several long-term changes. In 1953 Yuri and student Stanley L. Miller designed a set of instruments to simulate the composition and conditions of the primitive earth's atmosphere. After a week of continuous spark discharge in a mixture of methane, ammonia, hydrogen and water vapor, Has formed more than ten amino acids. This illustrates the possibility of protein production in the primitive atmosphere. This opens an important way to study the origin of life. At the age of sixty-five in 1968, he was hired as a senior researcher at the Institute of Oceanography at the University of California. He also proposed the theory of the solar system formed by meteorites, and believed that life might be produced on other planets. Yuri is also an expert on the surface of the moon. Apollo went to the moon to retrieve a sample of the moon rock, which was led by Yuri to participate in the research. Yuri also served as an important consultant in the Pirate Rocket Exploration Mars program. In addition to winning the Nobel Prize in Chemistry at the age of 41, Yuri also received more than 30 medals and awards from governments, academic groups and scientific organizations. Some universities in the United States have awarded him 16 honorary doctorates He has been awarded nine honorary degrees by universities in other countries. This shows that the academic circles in the world attach great importance to his scientific achievements. During the last ten years of Yuri's life, he focused much of his energy on opposing the destructive effects of atomic weapons. He has long believed that the United States cannot monopolize nuclear weapons, and he advocates that both the United States and the Soviet Union should reduce atomic weapons so that long-term peace in the world can be achieved. Before he died, he repeatedly emphasized that atomic energy could only be used for peaceful purposes. He has given a large number of public lectures and written appeals over the years, and has been sympathized by many American intellectuals. Although some people do not agree with some of Yuri's views, no one doubts that his claims are sincere and sincere. Harold Yuri's performance will be in the history of chemistry forever. ^[3]

Deuterium harms the human body

It would be totally wrong to say that deuterium (or heavy water) is toxic. This is like air. About 4/5 of the air is nitrogen, which is not harmful to living things. If the proportion of nitrogen in the air is too high, people will suffocate, but this does not mean that nitrogen is toxic. In the same way, ordinary water contains a trace of heavy water, which has no effect on life. When the content of heavy water is high, the human body will be harmed, and this does not mean that deuterium is a toxic substance .