List of elements by stability of isotopes
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This is a list of chemical elements in terms of the nuclear stability of their most stable isotopes. There are 80 elements of the first 82 in the periodic table that do have isotopes considered to be stable.[1] Element 43 (technetium), element 61 (promethium), and all the elements with an atomic number over 82 have only isotopes that are known to decompose through radioactive decay and are not expected to have any stable, undiscovered ones. On the other hand, it is possible that some isotopes that are presently considered stable will be revealed to decay with extremely long half-times (as was the case in 2003 with bismuth-209 which had been previously considered to be stable[2][3]).
For each of the stable elements the number of the stable isotopes and the most abundant isotope on Earth is given.[a] Of these 80 elements, one (tin) has 10 stable isotopes, one (xenon) has 9, five have 7, three have 6, nine have 5, eight have 4, 11 have 3, 15 have 2, and 27 of them have a single stable isotope.[1] It should be noted that many of these elements also have isotopes with very long half-lives that have not been included in the list, and some of these unstable isotopes may be even more abundant on Earth than the stable isotopes.
All the other 37 known elements do have only radioactive isotopes. Nevertheless, some of these have isotopes with very long half-lives, which allows them to still be present on Earth (e.g.: bismuth, uranium, thorium, etc.). The elements in this list are ordered according to the lifetime of their most stable isotope.[1] Only 13 have a half-time of at least 100 years. The other 24 are probably too radioactive and unstable to be used outside academic research. Some of the later elements in the periodic table may be revealed to have isotopes with longer lifetimes than those listed here, but have not been discovered yet.
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[edit] Elements with stable isotopes
| Atomic number |
Name | Number of stable isotopes |
Most common isotope (on Earth)[a] |
|---|---|---|---|
| 50 | tin | 10 | tin-120 |
| 54 | xenon | 9 | xenon-132 |
| 44 | ruthenium | 7 | ruthenium-102 |
| 56 | barium | 7 | barium-138 |
| 66 | dysprosium | 7 | dysprosium-164 |
| 70 | ytterbium | 7 | ytterbium-174 |
| 80 | mercury | 7 | mercury-202 |
| 42 | molybdenum | 6 | molybdenum-98 |
| 46 | palladium | 6 | palladium-106 |
| 68 | erbium | 6 | erbium-166 |
| 22 | titanium | 5 | titanium-48 |
| 28 | nickel | 5 | nickel-58 |
| 30 | zinc | 5 | zinc-64 |
| 34 | selenium | 5 | selenium-80 |
| 36 | krypton | 5 | krypton-84 |
| 60 | neodymium | 5 | neodymium-142 |
| 64 | gadolinium | 5 | gadolinium-158 |
| 72 | hafnium | 5 | hafnium-180 |
| 78 | platinum | 5 | platinum-195 |
| 16 | sulfur | 4 | sulfur-32 |
| 20 | calcium | 4 | calcium-40 |
| 32 | germanium | 4 | germanium-74 |
| 38 | strontium | 4 | strontium-88 |
| 52 | tellurium | 4 | tellurium-126 |
| 62 | samarium | 4 | samarium-152 |
| 74 | tungsten | 4 | tungsten-184 |
| 76 | osmium | 4 | osmium-190 |
| 8 | oxygen | 3 | oxygen-16 |
| 10 | neon | 3 | neon-20 |
| 12 | magnesium | 3 | magnesium-24 |
| 14 | silicon | 3 | silicon-28 |
| 18 | argon | 3 | argon-40 |
| 24 | chromium | 3 | chromium-52 |
| 26 | iron | 3 | iron-56 |
| 40 | zirconium | 3 | zirconium-90 |
| 48 | cadmium | 3 | cadmium-112 |
| 58 | cerium | 3 | cerium-140 |
| 82 | lead | 3 | lead-208 |
| 1 | hydrogen | 2 | hydrogen-1 |
| 2 | helium | 2 | helium-4 |
| 3 | lithium | 2 | lithium-7 |
| 5 | boron | 2 | boron-11 |
| 6 | carbon | 2 | carbon-12 |
| 7 | nitrogen | 2 | nitrogen-14 |
| 17 | chlorine | 2 | chlorine-35 |
| 19 | potassium | 2 | potassium-39 |
| 29 | copper | 2 | copper-63 |
| 31 | gallium | 2 | gallium-69 |
| 35 | bromine | 2 | bromine-79 |
| 47 | silver | 2 | silver-107 |
| 51 | antimony | 2 | stibium-121 |
| 77 | iridium | 2 | iridium-193 |
| 81 | thallium | 2 | thallium-205 |
| 4 | beryllium | 1 | beryllium-9 |
| 9 | fluorine | 1 | fluorine-19 |
| 11 | sodium | 1 | sodium-23 |
| 13 | aluminium | 1 | aluminium-27 |
| 15 | phosphorus | 1 | phosphorus-31 |
| 21 | scandium | 1 | scandium-45 |
| 23 | vanadium | 1 | vanadium-51 |
| 25 | manganese | 1 | manganese-55 |
| 27 | cobalt | 1 | cobalt-59 |
| 33 | arsenic | 1 | arsenic-75 |
| 37 | rubidium | 1 | rubidium-85 |
| 39 | yttrium | 1 | yttrium-89 |
| 41 | niobium | 1 | niobium-93 |
| 45 | rhodium | 1 | rhodium-103 |
| 49 | indium | 1 | indium-113 |
| 53 | iodine | 1 | iodine-127 |
| 55 | caesium | 1 | caesium-133 |
| 57 | lanthanum | 1 | lanthanum-139] |
| 59 | praseodymium | 1 | praseodymium-141 |
| 63 | europium | 1 | europium-153 |
| 65 | terbium | 1 | terbium-159 |
| 67 | holmium | 1 | holmium-165 |
| 69 | thulium | 1 | thulium-169 |
| 71 | lutetium | 1 | lutetium-175 |
| 73 | tantalum | 1 | tantalum-181 |
| 75 | rhenium | 1 | rhenium-185 |
| 79 | gold | 1 | gold-197 |
Element categories in the periodic table
| Metals | Metalloids | Nonmetals | Unknown | |||||||
| Alkali metals | Alkaline earth metals | Inner transition elements | Transition elements | Other metals | Other nonmetals | Halogens | Noble gases | |||
| Lanthanides | Actinides | |||||||||
[edit] Elements without stable isotopes
(1) stable elements.
(2) radioactive elements with isotopes with very long decay half-times. Their half-live of over a million years gives them very small, if not negligible radioactivities and thus may be handled without any precautions.
(3) radioactive elements that may present low health hazards. Their half-time of over 500 years allows them to have commercial applications due to the fact that their radiation levels are near the background one.
(4) radioactive elements that are known to pose high safety risks. Their half-life of over a day and their radioactivity levels make them have little potential for any commercial use.
(5) highly radioactive elements. Because of their half-time as low as a couple of minutes, they pose severe health risks and is unlikely that they will receive any use outside basic research.
(6) extremely radioactive elements. Very little is known about these elements, and will likely never receive any attention outside research laboratories.
| Atomic number |
Name | Half-life[f] | Longest-lived isotope |
|---|---|---|---|
| 83 | bismuth | 1.9 * 1019 a | bismuth-209 |
| 90 | thorium | 1.405 * 1010 a | thorium-232 |
| 92 | uranium | 4.468 * 109 a | uranium-238 |
| 94 | plutonium | 8.08 * 107 a | plutonium-244 |
| 96 | curium | 1.56 * 107 a | curium-247 |
| 43 | technetium | 4.2 * 106 a | technetium-98[b] |
| 93 | neptunium | 2.144 * 106 a | neptunium-237 |
| 91 | protactinium | 32,760 a | protactinium-231 |
| 95 | americium | 7370 a | americium-243 |
| 88 | radium | 1602 a | radium-226 |
| 97 | berkelium | 1380 a | berkelium-247 |
| 98 | californium | 898 a | californium-251 |
| 84 | polonium | 103 a | polonium-209 |
| 89 | actinium | 21.77 a | actinium-227 |
| 61 | promethium | 17.7 a | promethium-145[b] |
| 99 | einsteinium | 1.29 a | einsteinium-252[c] |
| 100 | fermium | 100.5 d | fermium-257[c] |
| 101 | mendelevium | 51.5 d | mendelevium-258[c] |
| 86 | radon | 3.82 d | radon-222 |
| 105 | dubnium | 1.3 d | dubnium-268[c] |
| 104 | rutherfordium | 13 h | rutherfordium-265[c] |
| 103 | lawrencium | 10 h[d] | lawrencium-264[c] |
| 85 | astatine | 8.1 h | astatine-210 |
| 107 | bohrium | 1.5 h[d] | bohrium-273[c] |
| 106 | seaborgium | 1 h[d] | seaborgium-272[c] |
| 108 | hassium | 1 h[d] | hassium-276[c] |
| 102 | nobelium | 58 m | nobelium-259[c] |
| 87 | francium | 22.0 m | francium-223[c] |
| 113 | ununtrium[e] | 20 m[d] | ununtrium-287[c] |
| 111 | roentgenium | 10 m[d] | roentgenium-283[c] |
| 109 | meitnerium | 6 m[d] | meitnerium-279[c] |
| 115 | ununpentium[e] | 1 m[d] | ununpentium-291[c] |
| 112 | ununbium[e] | 34 s | ununbium-285[c] |
| 110 | darmstadtium | 10 s | darmstadtium-278[c] |
| 114 | ununquadium[e] | 2.7 s | ununquadium-289[c] |
| 116 | ununhexium[e] | 0.053 s | ununhexium-293[c] |
| 118 | ununoctium[e] | 0.00089 s | ununoctium-294[c] |
[edit] Footnotes
- a Most common isotope on Earth does not necessarly imply that the isotope is the lowest in energy and therefore the most stable. It just implies that their formation was favored by the stellar nucleosynthesis precessed that produces the matter constitutes now the Solar System and the Earth (see also Formation and evolution of the Solar System). For example, the unstable isotope cadmium-114 is more abundant on Earth than any stable isotope of cadmium.
- b For a more detailed discussion as to why technetium and promethium are the only unstable elements before lead, see discussion here.
- c There might exist more stable isotopes for elements with a higher atomic number than californium (with Z>98) that have not been discovered yet.
- d These values are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from systematic trends.
- e None of the elements with an atomic number above 111 have yet been confirmed by IUPAC.
- f Legend: a=years, d=days, h=hours, m=minutes, s=seconds.
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Alejandro Sonzogni. Interactive Chart of Nuclides. Brookhaven National Laboratory. Retrieved on 2008-06-06.
- ^ Dumé, Belle. "Bismuth breaks half-life record for alpha decay", Physicsweb, 23 April 2003.
- ^ Marcillac, Pierre de; Noël Coron, Gérard Dambier, Jacques Leblanc, and Jean-Pierre Moalic (April 2003). "Experimental detection of α-particles from the radioactive decay of natural bismuth". Nature 422: 876–878. doi:.
[edit] See also
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