What is the highest number of isotopes that an atom can have?

Can we call one atom and one ion of the same element having different number of neutrons isotopes?

  • My instinct tells me that being ionised will not affect the identity of an atom being an isotope to another, but I can't find evidence. The definition of isotopes also say that they are atoms of the same element with different number of neutrons. Please provide reliable references so that I can prove it to my chemistry teacher.

  • Answer:

    Ions are atoms that have electrons added or removed. Isotopes are atoms that have different numbers of neutrons but the same number of protons. Your instinct is correct , have one to one with your teacher, discuss.

Malcolm Sargeant at Quora Visit the source

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This must be very frustrating.You feel that the teachers and the text book are wrong and no one will listen to you so you have turned to Quara for help. Maybe they ARE wrong on this point, but I hope you are open to the possibility that they are not and that this is a simple misunderstanding on your part. The Internet is great. And Quora is a great, great resource. But sometimes it is tempting to turn to the Internet instead of to friends, family, teachers, and other students. Humans are still important in our lives. Try to keep that in mind, okay? If your teacher is too busy to help on this, I would ask another teacher or a parent, or a friend who is good at chemistry. A bunch of strangers on Quora just can't provide the true community that they can. I'm not trying to discourage you from Facebook, Twitter, Quora, Google+, etc. They're all great. Just don't let them become a crutch. Don't retreat from human beings. Please. Best of luck, MISTER ScienceAintSoBad I want to add here that I meant no offense in the above statement. I was not being intentionally sarcastic and didn't intend for it to sound demeaning. I am sincerely concerned that the Quora community offer an alternative to - not a substitute - for a real life community of family, friends, and others in ones life.

David Chidakel

It will be both an ion and an isotope. Please find the CERN guideline link in the bottom but before that this is how I would proceed to convince my teacher: Assuming aX and nX, where 'a' and 'n'  are atomic masses of the two Isotopes. If I remove some electrons from nX to make it nX`, It still is an ion of Xn which means that this would be the ionic form of an Isotope of Xa. So that should not remove the Isotopic properties of the element X because  Isotopic properties have nothing to do with the Electron count on the element. If (s)He still doesn't agree, I hope this link helps: http://writing-guidelines.web.cern.ch/entries/ions-and-isotopes

Jenendra Jain

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