The Radioactive Isotopes They are atoms of an element that have been modified in such a way that a greater number of neutrons are found in its nucleus than in the original element, therefore this new atom has the same number of electrons in its outer shell, the same atomic number which corresponds to the number of protons in the nucleus, which defines its location in the periodic table, but different atomic mass or atomic weight since this last value corresponds to the sum of neutrons and protons in the nucleus.
Each of the different types of atoms have their isotopes, even the same atom can have many types of isotopes, some of them are stable but others, as is the case of uranium, are quite unstable so the atom emits radiation in a spontaneous while it becomes a more stable atom which causes it to be called a radioactive isotope. It is likely that after a first decomposition of the nucleus, the atom does not manage to stabilize, so the process continues until it decomposes into a new atom, this process can occur several times until stability is achieved, the successive atoms that are obtained in this process is known as a radioactive series or family.
Many isotopes are normally found in nature, however they can also be produced in nuclear laboratories by bombarding the atoms of a certain element with subatomic particles. In order to be able to identify them, a nomenclature was created to identify them in which it is established that the symbol of the element is placed a subscript on the left with its atomic number and a superscript also on the left with the mass number, this is cumbersome in Sometimes another accepted nomenclature is to place the name of the element followed by a hyphen and then the mass number, an example would be carbon-14 which corresponds to one of the best known radioactive isotopes such as carbon-14.
Radioactive isotopes are widely used in different industrial processes and even in sciences such as medicine.
In the case of medicine, the branch known as nuclear medicine is based on the use of radioactive isotopes both for diagnostic purposes and for the treatment of some conditions. From the diagnostic point of view, one of the most used is in technesium-99, used in the study of Bone Gammagram, in order to obtain images of the skeleton that show increased uptake by lesions secondary to metabolic problems of the bone as well as due to the presence of metastases of some tumors. Some isotopes such as cobalt-60 are used in a type of cancer treatment known as radiotherapy for their property of emitting radiation capable of killing tumor cells.
Another important use of radioactive isotopes is to establish the data of an organic sample, by measuring the levels of carbon-14 in it, in plastic manufacturing processes to give it a greater capacity for thermal and electrical insulation, as well as in verification of pipe welds and identification of cracks, where iridium-192 is used.
