Isotopes of carbon
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Standard atomic weight Ar°(C) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Carbon (6C) has 14 known isotopes, from 8
C to 20
C as well as 22
C, of which only 12
C and 13
C are stable. The longest-lived radioisotope is 14
C, with a half-life of 5700 years. This is also the only carbon radioisotope found in nature, as trace quantities are formed cosmogenically by the reaction 14
N + n → 14
C + 1
H. The most stable artificial radioisotope is 11
C, which has a half-life of 20.34 min. All other radioisotopes have half-lives under 20 seconds, most less than 200 milliseconds. Lighter isotopes exhibit beta-plus decay into isotopes of boron and heavier ones beta-minus decay into isotopes of nitrogen, though at the limits particle emission occurs as well.
- ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
- ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Carbon". CIAAW. 2009.
- ^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (2022-05-04). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.