Heavy water

Heavy water is deuterium oxide, or D2O or 2H2O. It is chemically the same as normal water, H2O, but the hydrogen atoms are of the heavy isotope deuterium, in which the nucleus contains a neutron in addition to the proton found in the nucleus of any hydrogen atom. Gilbert Newton Lewis isolated the first sample of pure heavy water in 1933.

Related Topics:
Water - Hydrogen - Isotope - Deuterium - Nucleus - Neutron - Proton - Gilbert Newton Lewis

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Semiheavy water, HDO, also exists whenever there is water with hydrogen-1 (or protium) and deuterium present in the mixture. This is because hydrogen atoms (hydrogen-1 and deuterium) are rapidly exchanged between water molecules. Water containing 50 percent H and 50 percent D actually contains about 50 percent HDO and 25 percent each of H2O and D2O, in dynamic equilibrium.

Related Topics:
Protium - Dynamic equilibrium

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