Unified atomic mass

unit

The unified atomic mass unit or dalton

(symbol: u, or Da) is a standard unit of
mass that quantifies 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 and at rest,[2]
and has a value of
1.660 539 040(20) × 10−27 kg, or
approximately 1.66 yoctograms.[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]
 Unified atomic mass unit
(Dalton)
Unit system Physical constant
(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    1.660 539 040(20) × 10−27

   MeV/c2    931.494 0954(57)

   me    1 822.888 486 192(53)

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 standard atomic weight (or atomic
weight) scale has traditionally been a
relative value, that is without a 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 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 (1903). 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 1.000 282 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
1 of the mass of a carbon-12 atom), as
u ( 12
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
the 1960s or before.

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 (IUPAC)
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]
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 Système international
d'unités (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 12C. 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
6.022 140 857(74) × 1023 mol−1 (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

Usage
Molecular masses of proteins are often
expressed in daltons. For example, a
molecule of a protein with molar mass
64 000 g⋅mol−1 has a mass of 64 kDa.[1]

In research and commerce, the degree of

polymerization of synthetic polymers is
conventionally expressed in daltons.

The US Supreme Court based a major

precedent of appellate law on a disputed
case of counting daltons for a molecular
distribution.[19]
Examples
A hydrogen-1 atom has a mass of
1.007 825 0322 u (1.007 825 0322 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
(3 000 000 Da).[20]

See also
Mass-to-charge ratio
Atomic mass constant
 Mass (mass spectrometry)
Kendrick mass
Monoisotopic mass

Notes and references

1. Berg, Jeremy M.; Tymoczko, John L.;
Stryer, Lubert (2007). "2". Biochemistry (6th
ed.). New York: Freeman. p. 35. ISBN 978-0-
7167-8724-2.
2. International Bureau of Weights and
Measures (2006), The International System
of Units (SI) (PDF) (8th ed.), p. 126, ISBN 92-
822-2213-6, archived (PDF) from the
original on 2017-08-14
3. Unified Atomic mass unit. Fundamental
Physical Constants from NIST
4. Chang, Raymond (2005). Physical
Chemistry for the Biosciences . p. 5.
ISBN 978-1-891389-33-7.
5. Kelter, Paul B.; Mosher, Michael D.; Scott,
Andrew (2008). Chemistry: The Practical
Science . 10. p. 60. ISBN 0-547-05393-2.
6. Petley, B. W. (1989), "The atomic mass
unit", IEEE Trans. Instrum. Meas., 38 (2):
175–79, doi:10.1109/19.192268
7. Holden, Norman E. (2004), "Atomic
Weights and the International Committee—
A Historical Review" , Chem. Int., 26 (1): 4–
7
8. IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical
Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book")
(1997). Online corrected version:  (2006–)
"unified atomic mass unit ".
9. IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical
Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book")
(1997). Online corrected version:  (2006–)
"dalton ".
10. Mills, Ian; Cvitaš, Tomislav; Homann,
Klaus; Kallay, Nikola; Kuchitsu, Kozo (1993).
Quantities, Units and Symbols in Physical
Chemistry International Union of Pure and
Applied Chemistry; Physical Chemistry
Division (PDF) (2nd ed.). International Union
of Pure and Applied Chemistry and
published for them by Blackwell Science
Ltd. ISBN 0-632-03583-8.
11. "Consultative Committee for Units
(CCU); Report of the 15th meeting (17–18
April 2003) to the International Committee
for Weights and Measures" (PDF). Retrieved
14 Aug 2010.
12. "IU14. IUPAC Interdivisional Committee
on Nomenclature and Symbols (ICTNS)" .
Retrieved 2010-08-14.
13. International Standard ISO 80000-
1:2009 – Quantities and Units – Part 1:
General, International Organization for
Standardization, 2009
14. International Standard ISO 80000-
10:2009 – Quantities and units – Part 10:
Atomic and nuclear physics, International
Organization for Standardization, 2009
15. "Instructions to Authors" . AoB Plants.
Oxford journals; Oxford University Press.
Retrieved 2010-08-22.
16. "Author guidelines". Rapid
Communications in Mass Spectrometry.
Wiley-Blackwell. 2010.
17. Leonard, B P (2012). "Why the dalton
should be redefined exactly in terms of the
kilogram" . Metrologia. 49 (4): 487–491.
Bibcode:2012Metro..49..487L .
doi:10.1088/0026-1394/49/4/487 .
18. Mohr, Peter J.; Taylor, Barry N.; Newell,
David B. (2008). "CODATA Recommended
Values of the Fundamental Physical
Constants: 2006" . Reviews of Modern
Physics. 80 (2): 633–730. arXiv:0801.0028 
. Bibcode:2008RvMP...80..633M .
doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.80.633 . Direct
link to value .
19. "Supreme Court Opinion in 'Teva
Pharmaceuticals USA, Inc. v. Sandoz, Inc.' "
(PDF).

20. Opitz CA, Kulke M, Leake MC, Neagoe C,

Hinssen H, Hajjar RJ, Linke WA (October
2003). "Damped elastic recoil of the titin
spring in myofibrils of human
myocardium" . Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.
100 (22): 12688–93.
Bibcode:2003PNAS..10012688O .
doi:10.1073/pnas.2133733100 .
PMC 240679  . PMID 14563922 .

External links
atomic mass unit at sizes.com

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