Atomic mass unit (From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Unified atomic mass unit (Dalton)

Physical constant
Unit system
(Accepted for use with the SI)
Unit of mass
Symbol u or Da
Named after John Dalton
Unit conversions
1 u or Da in ... ... is equal to ...
kg 1.660539040(20)1027
MeV/c2 931.494095(11)
me 1822.88839

The unified atomic mass unit (symbol: u) or dalton (symbol: Da) is the standard
unit that is used for indicating mass on an atomic or molecular scale (atomic mass). One
unified atomic mass unit is approximately the mass of one nucleon (either a single proton
or neutron) and is numerically equivalent to 1 g/mol.[1] It is defined as one twelfth of the
mass of an unbound neutral atom of carbon-12 in its nuclear and electronic ground state,[2]
and has a value of 1.660539040(20)1027 kg.[3] The CIPM has categorised it as a non-SI
unit accepted for use with the SI, and whose value in SI units must be obtained
experimentally.[2]

The amu without the "unified" prefix is technically an obsolete unit based on
oxygen, which was replaced in 1961. However, many sources still use the term "amu" but
now define it in the same way as u (i.e., based on carbon-12).[4][5] In this sense, most uses of
the terms "atomic mass units" and "amu" today actually refer to unified atomic mass unit.
For standardization a specific atomic nucleus (carbon-12 vs. oxygen-16) had to be chosen
because the average mass of a nucleon depends on the count of the nucleons in the atomic
nucleus due to mass defect. This is also why the mass of a proton or neutron by itself is
more than (and not equal to) 1 u.

The atomic mass unit is not the unit of mass in the atomic units system, which is
rather the electron rest mass (me).

History

The relative atomic mass (atomic weight) scale has traditionally been a relative
scale, that is without an explicit unit, with the first relative atomic mass basis suggested by
John Dalton in 1803 as 1H.[6] Despite the initial mass of 1H being used as the natural unit

1
for relative atomic mass, it was suggested by Wilhelm Ostwald that relative atomic mass
would be best expressed in terms of units of 1/16 mass of oxygen. This evaluation was
made prior to the discovery of the existence of elemental isotopes, which occurred in 1912.
[6]

The discovery of isotopic oxygen in 1929 led to a divergence in relative atomic

mass representation, with isotopically weighted oxygen (i.e., naturally occurring oxygen
relative atomic mass) given a value of exactly 16 atomic mass units (amu) in chemistry,
while pure 16O (oxygen-16) was given the mass value of exactly 16 amu in physics.

The divergence of these values could result in errors in computations, and was
unwieldy. The chemistry amu, based on the relative atomic mass (atomic weight) of natural
oxygen (including the heavy naturally-occurring isotopes 17O and 18O), was about 1.000282
as massive as the physics amu, based on pure isotopic 16O.

For these and other reasons, the reference standard for both physics and chemistry
was changed to carbon-12 in 1961.[7] The choice of carbon-12 was made to minimise
further divergence with prior literature.[6] The new and current unit was referred to as the
"unified atomic mass unit" u.[8] and given a new symbol, "u," which replaced the now
deprecated "amu" that had been connected to the old oxygen-based system. The Dalton
(Da) is another name for the unified atomic mass unit.[9]

Despite this change, modern sources often still use the old term "amu" but define it
as u (1/12 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom), as mentioned in the article's introduction.
Therefore, in general, "amu" likely does not refer to the old oxygen standard unit, unless
the source material originates from or before the 1960s.

The unified atomic mass unit u was defined as:

Terminology

The unified atomic mass unit and the dalton are different names for the same unit of
measure. As with other unit names such as watt and newton, "dalton" is not capitalized in
English, but its symbol Da is capitalized. With the introduction of the name "dalton", there
has been a gradual change towards using that name in preference to the name "unified
atomic mass unit":

In 1993, the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry approved the
use of the dalton with the qualification that the CGPM had not given its approval.[10]
In 2003 the Consultative Committee for Units, part of the CIPM,
recommended a preference for the usage of the "dalton" over the "unified atomic mass
unit" as it "is shorter and works better with prefixes".[11]

2
 In 2005, the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics endorsed the
use of the dalton as an alternative to the unified atomic mass unit.[12]
In 2006, in the 8th edition of the formal definition of SI, the CIPM cataloged
the dalton alongside the unified atomic mass unit as a "Non-SI unit whose values in SI
units must be obtained experimentally: Units accepted for use with the SI".[2] The definition
also noted that "The dalton is often combined with SI prefixes ..."
In 2009, when the International Organization for Standardization published
updated versions of ISO 80000, it gave mixed messages as to whether or not the unified
atomic mass unit had been deprecated: ISO 80000-1:2009 (General), identified the dalton
as having "earlier [been] called the unified atomic mass unit u",[13] but ISO 80000-10:2009
(atomic and nuclear physics) catalogued both as being alternatives for each other.[14]
The 2010 version of the Oxford University Press style guide for authors in
life sciences gave the following guidance: "Use the Systme international d'units (SI)
wherever possible ... The dalton (Da) or more conveniently the kDa is a permitted non-SI
unit for molecular mass or mass of a particular band in a separating gel."[15] At the same
time, the author guidelines for the journal "Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry"
stated "The dalton (Da) is a unit of mass normally used for the molecular weight ... use of
the Da in place of the u has become commonplace in the mass spectrometry literature ...
The "atomic mass unit", abbreviated "amu", is an archaic unit".[16]
In 2012, in response to the proposed redefinition of the kilogram, it was
proposed that the dalton be redefined as being 0.001/NA kg, thereby breaking the link with
12
C. This would result in the dalton and the atomic mass unit having slightly different
definitions, but the suggestion is that the older unit should be superseded by the "new"
dalton.[17]
Relationship to SI

The definition of the mole, an SI base unit, was accepted by the CGPM in 1971 as:

1. The mole is the amount of substance of a system which contains as many

elementary entities as there are atoms in 0.012 kilogram of carbon-12; its symbol is "mol".
2. When the mole is used, the elementary entities must be specified and may be
atoms, molecules, ions, electrons, other particles, or specified groups of such particles.

The definition of the mole also determines the value of the universal constant that
relates the number of entities to amount of substance for any sample. This constant is
called the Avogadro constant, symbol NA or L, and has the value
6.022140857(74)1023 mol1 (entities per mole).[18]

Given that the unified atomic mass unit is one twelfth the mass of one atom of
carbon-12, meaning the mass of such an atom is 12 u, it follows that there are NA atoms of
carbon-12 in 0.012 kg of carbon-12. This can be expressed mathematically as

NA (12 u) = 0.012 kg/mol, or

NA u = 0.001 kg/mol

3
 Masses of proteins are often expressed in daltons. For example, a protein with a
molecular weight of 64000 gmol1 has a mass of 64 kDa.[1]

Examples
A hydrogen-1 atom has a mass of 1.0078250 u (1.0078250 Da).
By definition, a carbon-12 atom has a mass of 12 u (12 Da).
A molecule of acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) has a mass of 180.16 u
(180.16 Da).
Titin, the largest known protein, has an atomic mass of 3-3.7 megadaltons
(3000000 Da).[19]