Isotopes of mercury

Isotopes of mercury (80Hg)
Main isotopes[1] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
194Hg synth 447 y ε 194Au
195Hg synth 10.7 h β+ 195Au
196Hg 0.15% stable
197Hg synth 64.14 h ε 197Au
198Hg 10.0% stable
199Hg 16.9% stable
200Hg 23.1% stable
201Hg 13.2% stable
202Hg 29.7% stable
203Hg synth 46.61 d β 203Tl
204Hg 6.82% stable
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Hg)

There are seven stable isotopes of mercury (80Hg) with 202Hg being the most abundant (29.74%). The longest-lived radioisotopes are 194Hg with a half-life of 447 years, and 203Hg with a half-life of 46.61 days. Most of the remaining 40 radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than a day. The odd natural isotopes 199Hg and 201Hg are NMR-active, having spin of 1/2 and 3/2 respectively; as NMR is best with spin 1/2, the former is normally used.[4] All isotopes of mercury are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed. These isotopes are predicted to undergo either alpha decay or double beta decay.

  1. ^ 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.
  2. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Mercury". CIAAW. 2011.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ "Mercury NMR".