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Oxygen is the third most abundant chemical element in the universe, after hydrogen and helium. [68] About 0.9% of the Sun's mass is oxygen. [19] Oxygen constitutes 49.2% of the Earth's crust by mass [69] as part of oxide compounds such as silicon dioxide and is the most abundant element by mass in the Earth's crust.
Thus, the atomic mass of a carbon-12 atom is 12 Da by definition, but the relative isotopic mass of a carbon-12 atom is simply 12. The sum of relative isotopic masses of all atoms in a molecule is the relative molecular mass. The atomic mass of an isotope and the relative isotopic mass refers to a certain specific isotope of an element.
Parts-per-million cube of relative abundance by mass of elements in an average adult human down to 1 ppm. By mass, human cells consist of 65–90% water (H 2 O), and a significant portion of the remainder is composed of carbon-containing organic molecules. Oxygen therefore contributes a majority of a human body's mass, followed by carbon.
In 1803 John Dalton proposed to use the (still unknown) atomic mass of the lightest atom, hydrogen, as the natural unit of atomic mass. This was the basis of the atomic weight scale. [12] For technical reasons, in 1898, chemist Wilhelm Ostwald and others proposed to redefine the unit of atomic mass as 1 / 16 the mass of an oxygen atom. [13]
With the discovery of oxygen isotopes in 1929, a situation arose where chemists based their calculations on the average atomic mass (atomic weight) of oxygen whereas physicists used the mass of the predominant isotope of oxygen, oxygen-16. This discrepancy became undesired and a unification between the chemistry and physics was necessary. [13]
The equivalent weight of an element is the mass which combines with or displaces 1.008 gram of hydrogen or 8.0 grams of oxygen or 35.5 grams of chlorine. The equivalent weight of an element is the mass of a mole of the element divided by the element's valence. That is, in grams, the atomic weight of the element divided by the usual valence. [2]
For other isotopes, the isotopic mass is usually within 0.1 u of the mass number. For example, 35 Cl (17 protons and 18 neutrons) has a mass number of 35 and an isotopic mass of 34.96885. [7] The difference of the actual isotopic mass minus the mass number of an atom is known as the mass excess, [8] which for 35 Cl is –0.03115.
Oxygen-16 (symbol: 16 O or 16 8 O) is a nuclide. It is a stable isotope of oxygen, with 8 neutrons and 8 protons in its nucleus, and when not ionized, 8 electrons orbiting the nucleus. Oxygen-16 has a mass of 15.994 914 619 56 u. It is the most abundant isotope of oxygen and accounts for 99.757% of oxygen's natural abundance. [2]