Where can you use protium, tritium and deuterium?

[Thallium]

um um um...

Where can you use protium, tritium and deuterium?

 

[selfAdjoint]

Protium, you mean hydrogen molecules? Deuterium and tritium are used in nuclear physics. D₂O is "heavy water", used as a moderator in some reactors. And Deuterium and Tritium play a big role in fusion, both at the H-bomb level and in the attempts to build fusion power systems.

Tritium is also used to make glow in the dark things. Like wristwatches that can give you a nice little dose.

 

[Thallium]

Thanks sA. Are these available on the market?

 

[Monique]

Originally posted by Thallium
Thanks sA. Are these available on the market?

[?] Just what are you constructing?

 

[Thallium]

I am very interested in chemistry. I am not constructing something. It seems illegal to ask if they are available on the market. I could always go ask in a chemists shop, but I am asking here first no matter how suspicious I may sound.

 

[selfAdjoint]

You might be able to buy heavy water at retail, but I'll bet you'd have to have a license to buy Tritium, it's a dangerous commodity- radioactive. Hydrogen, the molecular form of your protium, is available freely as a gas in pressure tanks. It's inflammable.

 

[Monique]

Well, it is not everyday that someone wants to buy unknown chemical substances

 

[Thallium]

I know, Monique. A little x

 

[Mike H]

Most chemical supply companies do sell isotopes (gas, liquid, solid) in a variety of contexts. Although I suspect most are used to dealing with academic/industrial/government clients for the most part. :) I've bought isotopes, but it's been for research purposes.

In terms of usage, deuterium is also quite common among people for utilization in spectroscopy, esp. NMR. I believe biochemists have used tritium as a radiolabel for tracking the fate of metabolites in the past, although I am not aware of how common the practice may still be in current research.