Isotopes of yttrium

Isotopes of yttrium (39Y)
Main isotopes Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
87Y synth 79.8 h ε 87Sr
88Y synth 106.63 d ε 88Sr
89Y 100% stable
90Y synth 64.05 h β 90Zr
91Y synth 58.51 d β 91Zr
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Y)

Natural yttrium (39Y) is composed of a single isotope, yttrium-89. The most stable radioisotopes are 88Y, which has a half-life of 106.63 days, and 91Y, with a half-life of 58.51 days. All the other isotopes have half-lives of less than 15 hours, except 87Y with 79.8 hours and 90Y with 64.05 hours. The dominant decay mode below the stable 89Y is electron capture and the dominant mode after it is beta emission. Isotopes characterized range from 76Y to 109Y.

In products of nuclear fission, 90Y exists in equilibrium with its parent isotope strontium-90. This isotopes alone has also been used in medicine; see yttrium-90.

  1. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Yttrium". CIAAW. 2021.
  2. ^ 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.