Isotopes of fluorine explained

Fluorine (9F) has 18 known isotopes ranging from to (with the exception of) and two isomers (and). Only fluorine-19 is stable and naturally occurring in more than trace quantities; therefore, fluorine is a monoisotopic and mononuclidic element.

The longest-lived radioisotope is ; it has a half-life of . All other fluorine isotopes have half-lives of less than a minute, and most of those less than a second. The least stable known isotope is, whose half-life is, corresponding to a resonance width of .

List of isotopes

|-| [1] | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 4| #| | p ?[2] | ?| 1/2+#||-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 5| |
[{{val|910|(100)|u=keV}}]| p ?[3] | ?| 2−||-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 6| |
[{{val|376|u=keV}}]| p| | 1/2+||-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 7| |
[{{val|21.3|(5.1)|u=keV}}]| p| | 0−||-| [4] | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 8| | | β+| | 5/2+||-| [5] | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 9| | | β+| | 1+| Trace|-| style="text-indent:1em" | | colspan="3" style="text-indent:2em" | | | IT| | 5+||-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 10| | colspan=3 align=center|Stable| 1/2+| 1|-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 11| | | β| | 2+||-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 12| | | β| | 5/2+||-| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 13| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2|| β (>)| | rowspan=2|(4+)| rowspan=2||-| βn (<)| |-| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 14| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2|| β (>)| | rowspan=2|5/2+| rowspan=2||-| βn (<)| |-| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 15| rowspan=2|| rowspan=2|| β (>)| | rowspan=2|3+| rowspan=2||-| βn (<)| |-| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 16| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3|| β | | rowspan=3|(5/2+)| rowspan=3||-| βn | |-| β2n ?[6] | ?|-| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 17| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3|| β | | rowspan=3|1+| rowspan=3||-| βn | |-| β2n ?[7] | ?|-| rowspan=3 style="text-indent:1em" | | rowspan=3 colspan="3" style="text-indent:2em" | | rowspan=3 | | IT | | rowspan=3|(4+)| rowspan=3||-| βn | |-| β ?[8] | ?|-| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 18| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3|| βn | | rowspan=3|5/2+#| rowspan=3||-| β | |-| β2n ?[9] | ?|-| | style="text-align:right" | 9| style="text-align:right" | 19| | | n| | (4−)||-| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 20| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3|| βn | | rowspan=3|(5/2+)| rowspan=3||-| β | |-| β2n ?[10] | ?|-| rowspan=3|| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9| rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 22| rowspan=3|#| rowspan=3|# [> {{val|260|u=ns}}]| β ?[11] | ?| rowspan=3|5/2+#| rowspan=3||-| βn ?[12] | ?|-| β2n ?[13] | ?|-

Fluorine-18

See main article: Fluorine-18. Of the unstable nuclides of fluorine, has the longest half-life, . It decays to via β+ decay. For this reason is a commercially important source of positrons. Its major value is in the production of the radiopharmaceutical fludeoxyglucose, used in positron emission tomography in medicine.

Fluorine-18 is the lightest unstable nuclide with equal odd numbers of protons and neutrons, having 9 of each. (See also the "magic numbers" discussion of nuclide stability.)

Fluorine-19

Fluorine-19 is the only stable isotope of fluorine. Its abundance is ; no other isotopes of fluorine exist in significant quantities. Its binding energy is . Fluorine-19 is NMR-active with a spin of 1/2+, so it is used in fluorine-19 NMR spectroscopy.

Fluorine-20

Fluorine-20 is an unstable isotope of fluorine. It has a half-life of and decays via beta decay to the stable nuclide . Its specific radioactivity is and has a mean lifetime of .

Fluorine-21

Fluorine-21, as with fluorine-20, is also an unstable isotope of fluorine. It has a half-life of . It undergoes beta decay as well, decaying to, which is a stable nuclide. Its specific activity is .

Isomers

Only two nuclear isomers (long-lived excited nuclear states), fluorine-18m and fluorine-26m, have been characterized. The half-life of before it undergoes isomeric transition is . This is less than the decay half-life of any of the fluorine radioisotope nuclear ground states except for mass numbers 14–16, 28, and 31. The half-life of is ; it decays mainly to its ground state of or (rarely, via beta-minus decay) to one of high excited states of with delayed neutron emission.

External links

References

  1. Charity . R. J. . Observation of the Exotic Isotope 13 F Located Four Neutrons beyond the Proton Drip Line . Physical Review Letters . 2 April 2021 . 126 . 13 . 2501 . 10.1103/PhysRevLett.126.132501 . 33861136 . 2021PhRvL.126m2501C . 1773500 . 233259561 . 5 April 2021 . PhysRevLett.
  2. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  3. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  4. Intermediate product of various CNO cycles in stellar nucleosynthesis as part of the process producing helium from hydrogen
  5. Has medicinal uses
  6. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  7. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  8. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  9. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  10. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  11. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  12. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.
  13. Decay mode shown is energetically allowed, but has not been experimentally observed to occur in this nuclide.

Sources