The first six elements of the first transition series have the following number of stable isotopes:

Element Number of Stable Isotopes

Sc 1

Ti 5

V 1

Cr 3

Mn 1

Fe 4

Explain why Sc, V, and Mn each have only one stable isotope while the other elements have several.

Video transcript

Hey everyone, we're told that atrium and niobium only have one stable isotope. Each however, elements adjacent to them in the same row such as zirconium and molybdenum have multiple stable isotopes. And they asked us to explain this phenomenon. Now if we look at our periodic tables starting with Atrium, we see that its atomic number comes up to for ni opium, Its atomic number comes up to 41 For Zirconium, its atomic number comes up to 40 and formality, Denham, its atomic number comes up to 42. And as we can see right here, atrium and niobium have odd numbers as their atomic numbers while zirconium and molybdenum have even numbers as their atomic numbers. So what this is telling us is that stable new glide generally have even numbers of both protons and neutrons. And Adams with an odd number of protons and neutrons typically have fewer stable isotopes. So essentially a number of protons lower our nuclear binding energy, making our odd nuclei generally less stable. And this is going to be our answer to this question. So I hope this made sense. And let us know if you have any questions