Can oxygen be made radioactive?

Oxygen-15 is a radioactive isotope of oxygen, frequently used in positron emission tomography (PET) imaging. It can be used, amongst other applications, in water for PET myocardial perfusion imaging and for brain imaging. It has 8 protons, 7 neutrons, and 8 electrons. The total atomic mass is 15.0030654 amu.

Is oxygen a radioactive element?

Oxygen isotope species Stable isotopes are variants of atoms that differ in mass but do not decay over time, that is, they are not radioactive. The element oxygen (O) is found in three naturally occurring stable isotopes, 18O, 17O, and 16O.

What causes an atom to become radioactive?

What causes atoms to be radioactive? Atoms found in nature are either stable or unstable. An atom is unstable (radioactive) if these forces are unbalanced; if the nucleus has an excess of internal energy. Instability of an atom’s nucleus may result from an excess of either neutrons or protons.

What are two radioactive of oxygen?

Oxygen-15 and oxygen-13.

Is oxygen man made?

Oxygen can be produced from a number of materials, using several different methods. The most common natural method is photo-synthesis, in which plants use sunlight convert carbon dioxide in the air into oxygen. This method is called electrolysis and produces very pure hydrogen and oxygen.

Is oxygen stable or unstable?

One oxygen atom is unstable since it has only 6 electrons in the outermost shell. For an atom to be stable it needs 8 electrons. So, for the oxygen atom to be stable it requires two more electrons in the valence shell.

How can we make radioactive elements artificially?

Radioactivity is the process by which the nucleus of an unstable atom loses energy by emitting radiation, including alpha particles, beta particles, gamma rays and conversion electrons Although radioactivity is observed as a natural occurring process, it can also be artificially induced typically via the bombarding …

How is oxygen 15 produced?

The short-lived isotope oxygen-15 is a clinically important radiotracer for positron emission tomography (PET). Oxygen-15 is commonly produced by deuteron bombardment of a nitrogen gas target via the 14N(d,n)15O reaction.

How is oxygen created artificially?

The most common commercial method for producing oxygen is the separation of air using either a cryogenic distillation process or a vacuum swing adsorption process. Nitrogen and argon are also produced by separating them from air. This method is called electrolysis and produces very pure hydrogen and oxygen.