Deuterium | Definition, Symbol, Production, & Facts (2024)

deuterium, isotope of hydrogen with a nucleus consisting of one proton and one neutron, which is double the mass of the nucleus of ordinary hydrogen (one proton). Deuterium has an atomic weight of 2.014. It is a stable atomic species found in natural hydrogen compounds to the extent of about 0.0156 percent.

Deuterium was discovered (1931) by the American chemist Harold C. Urey (for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Chemistry in 1934) and his associates Ferdinand G. Brickwedde and George M. Murphy. Urey predicted a difference between the vapour pressures of molecular hydrogen (H₂) and of a corresponding molecule with one hydrogen atom replaced by deuterium (HD) and, thus, the possibility of separating these substances by distillation of liquid hydrogen. The deuterium was detected (by its atomic spectrum) in the residue of a distillation of liquid hydrogen. Deuterium was first prepared in pure form in 1933 by Gilbert N. Lewis, using the electrolytic method of concentration discovered by Edward Wight Washburn. When water is electrolyzed—i.e., decomposed by an electric current (actually a water solution of an electrolyte, usually sodium hydroxide, is used)—the hydrogen gas produced contains a smaller fraction of deuterium than the remaining water, and, hence, deuterium is concentrated in the water. Very nearly pure deuterium oxide (D₂O; heavy water) is secured when the amount of water has been reduced to about one hundred-thousandth of its original volume by continued electrolysis.

Deuterium enters into all chemical reactions characteristic of ordinary hydrogen, forming equivalent compounds. Deuterium, however, reacts more slowly than ordinary hydrogen, a criterion that distinguishes the two forms of hydrogen. Because of this property, among others, deuterium is extensively used as an isotopic tracer in investigations of chemical and biochemical reactions involving hydrogen.

The nuclear fusion of deuterium atoms or of deuterium and the heavier hydrogen isotope, tritium, at high temperature is accompanied by release of an enormous amount of energy; such reactions have been used in thermonuclear weapons. Since 1953, the stable solid substance lithium deuteride (LiD) has been used in place of both deuterium and tritium.

The physical properties of the molecular form of the isotope deuterium (D₂) and the molecules of hydrogen deuteride (HD) are compared with those of the molecules of ordinary hydrogen (H₂) in the Table.