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Isotopes of tin

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Tin (50Sn) is the element with the greatest number of stable isotopes (ten; three of them are potentially radioactive but have not been observed to decay). This is probably related to the fact that 50 is a "magic number" of protons. In addition, 32 unstable tin isotopes are known, including tin-100 (100Sn) (discovered in 1994)[4] and tin-132 (132Sn), which are both "doubly magic". The longest-lived tin radioisotope is tin-126 (126Sn), with a half-life of 230,000 years. The other 28 radioisotopes have half-lives of less than a year.

Quick Facts Main isotopes, Decay ...
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List of isotopes

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More information Nuclide, Z ...
  1. mSn  Excited nuclear isomer.
  2. ()  Uncertainty (1σ) is given in concise form in parentheses after the corresponding last digits.
  3. #  Atomic mass marked #: value and uncertainty derived not from purely experimental data, but at least partly from trends from the Mass Surface (TMS).
  4. #  Values marked # are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from trends of neighboring nuclides (TNN).
  5. Bold symbol as daughter  Daughter product is stable.
  6. () spin value  Indicates spin with weak assignment arguments.
  7. Heaviest known nuclide with more protons than neutrons
  8. Heaviest nuclide with equal numbers of protons and neutrons with no observed α decay
  9. Believed to decay by β+β+ to 112Cd
  10. Believed to undergo ββ decay to 122Te
  11. Believed to undergo ββ decay to 124Te with a half-life over 1×1017 years
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Tin-117m

Tin-117m is a radioisotope of tin. One of its uses is in a particulate suspension to treat canine synovitis (radiosynoviorthesis).[8]

Tin-121m

Tin-121m (121mSn) is a radioisotope and nuclear isomer of tin with a half-life of 43.9 years.

In a normal thermal reactor, it has a very low fission product yield; thus, this isotope is not a significant contributor to nuclear waste. Fast fission or fission of some heavier actinides will produce tin-121 at higher yields. For example, its yield from uranium-235 is 0.0007% per thermal fission and 0.002% per fast fission.[9]

Tin-126

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More information Thermal, Fast ...

Tin-126 is a radioisotope of tin and one of the only seven long-lived fission products of uranium and plutonium. While tin-126's half-life of 230,000 years translates to a low specific activity of gamma radiation, its short-lived decay products, two isomers of antimony-126, emit a cascade of hard gamma radiation - at least 3 photons over 400 keV per decay - before reaching stable tellurium-126, making external exposure to tin-126 a potential concern.

Tin-126 is in the middle of the mass range for fission products. Thermal reactors, which make up almost all current nuclear power plants, produce it at only low yield, since slow neutrons almost always fission 235U or 239Pu into unequal halves. Fast fission in a fast reactor or nuclear weapon, or fission of some heavy minor actinides such as californium, will produce it at higher yields.

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See also

Daughter products other than tin

References

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