Eli5: what are things like carbon-12? Are they carbons but with a nucleon mass of 12? And how are electrons related?

Question

Eli5: what are things like carbon-12? Are they carbons but with a nucleon mass of 12? And how are electrons related?

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

All carbon atoms have the same number of protons, the positively charged particle in the nucleus of the atom. This is true for every element – the number of protons is what determines what element it is. Carbon atoms always have 6 protons.

However, elements can have different numbers of neutrons, a particle with no charge. Adding up the number of protons and neutrons gives you the isotope number. Carbon-12 has 6 neutrons. Carbon can also exist as carbon-13 with 7 neutrons (relatively common, about 1 in 100 carbon atoms in the environment are 13C) and carbon-11 with 5 neutrons (11C is not stable and decays rapidly).

Isolated carbon atoms don’t exist in nature, but uncharged carbon atoms have one electron for each proton. Two of these are non-bonding and four of them participate in bonding with other elements.