4 ms·
Not mentioned in the piece is that a small fraction of naturally-occurring water is "heavy" for a somewhat different reason. Oxygen as well as hydrogen has sta
by everybodyknows 6y ago
Not mentioned in the piece is that a small fraction of naturally-occurring water is "heavy" for a somewhat different reason. Oxygen as well as hydrogen has stable isotopes, O17 and O18.
Summary of O16, O17, O18 formation inside massive stars, here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_oxygen https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_oxygen
- xyzzy21 6y agoThe paper found that O18 doesn't change the taste to sweet like deuterium does.
- everybodyknows 6y agoThe explanation may have something to do with an extra neutron roughly doubling the mass of a hydrogen atom, whereas two extra neutrons raise the oxygen mass by only 2/16ths or 12.5%.
- Teknoman117 6y agoThey spent like $1000 to obtain water made from O18, which did not have a sweet taste like D2O did. I wonder if D2O(18) would have any flavor difference...
- KMag 6y agoWas the O18 water also extracted from a cascade of electrolysis cells? If so, was it extra low in deuterium? My understanding is that, at least during WWII, Norway had a bunch of hydro power they used for electrolysis to produce hydrogen in order to produce ammonia via the Haber process. Deuterium is accelerated about half as strongly as regular hydrogen in the electrolysis cells. If you connect up your electrolysis cells in series, the small gradient in hydrogen isotopes you get across each cell accumulates across the cascade, and also the regular hydrogen leaves as a gas at a higher rate. At least that's my understanding, which would also imply the end of the cascade that's depleted of deuterium is also enriched in heavy oxygen isotopes.