Carbon-12 Carbon-12 Carbon-12 (C) is the more abundant of the two stable isotopes of carbon (Carbon-13 being the other), amounting to 98.93% of the element carbon; its abundance is due to the triple-alpha process by which it is created in stars. Carbon-12 is of particular importance in its use as the standard from which atomic masses of all nuclides are measured, thus, its atomic mass is exactly 12 daltons by definition. Its nucleus contains 6 protons and 6 neutrons. Before 1959 both the IUPAP and IUPAC used oxygen to define the mole; the chemists defining the mole as the number of
Standard atomic weight Standard atomic weight The standard atomic weight ("A", a relative atomic mass) is the atomic weight ("A") of a chemical element, as appearing and met in the earthly environment. It reflects the variance of natural isotopes (and so weight differences) of an element. Values are defined by (restricted to) the IUPAC (CIAAW) definition of natural, stable, terrestrial sources. It is the most common and practical atomic weight used, for example to determine molar mass. The specified definition is to use many representative sources (samples) from the Earth, so that the value can widely be used as 'the' atomic weight for