Kimia Unsur: Hidrogen

Hidrogen merupakan salah satu unsur kimia yang paling ringan di antara unsur-unsur kimia yang lain. Di atmosfer, hidrogen berada dalam wujud gas diatomik (H₂). Karena massa yang ringan ini, hidrogen di atmosfer hampir tidak dipengaruhi oleh gravitasi bumi sehingga jumlah hidrogen di atmosfer sangatlah langka. Di bumi, hidrogen berada dalam senyawanya seperti senyawa-senyawa hidrokarbon dan gas metana. Gas hidrogen dihasilkan oleh beberapa bakteri dan alga.

(picture taken from: http://keyhole.web.cern.ch/keyhole/theory/hydrogen.jpg)

Secara alamiah, hidrogen memiliki tiga buah isotop, yaitu protium ¹H, deuterium ²H dan tritium ³H. Isotop lainnya tidak stabil mulai disintesis di laboratorium (⁴H sampai dengan ⁷H). Protium merupakan isotop yang paling umum dengan kelimpahan 99,98%. Deuterium berpotensi untuk digunakan sebagai bahan bakar reaktor nuklir komersial. Air berat (air yang kaya deuterium) digunakan sebagai moderator dan pendingin pada reaktor nuklir. Tritium bersifat radioaktif. Sejumlah kecil tritium terbentuk karena interaksi sinar kosmik dan gas atmosfer. Tritium digunakan pada reaksi fusi nuklir dan sebagai perunut isotop kimia bumi.

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Hydrogen is a chemical element that most of the light elements of the other chemicals. In the atmosphere, hydrogen existing in diatomic gas (H2). Because the mass of hydrogen is light, the hydrogen in the atmosphere is almost not influenced by the earth's gravity so that the amount of hydrogen in the atmosphere is very rare. In the earth, the hydrogen found as compounds such as hydrocarbons compounds and methane gas. Hydrogen gas is produced by some bacteria and algae.

Naturally, there is three kinds of hydrogen isotope, protium is ¹H, deuterium ²H, and tritium ³H. Other unstable of hydrogen isotope start synthesized in the lab (4H to ⁷H). Protium is the most common isotope abundance of 99.98%. Deuterium is used as the potential to fuel commercial nuclear reactor. Heavy water (deuterium-rich water) was used as moderators in the refrigerator and the nuclear reactor. Tritium is radioactive. A small amount of tritium was formed of interaction between cosmic rays and the gas atmosphere. Tritium is used in nuclear fusion reactions as tracer and isotope geochemistry.