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Beryllium (Be) has 12 known isotopes, but only one of these isotopes (
9
Be) is stable and a primordial nuclide. As such, beryllium is
considered a monoisotopic element. It is also a mononuclidic element, because its other isotopes have such short half-lives that none are
primordial and their abundance is very low. Beryllium is unique as being the only monoisotopic element with both an even number of
protons and an odd number of neutrons. There are 25 other monoisotopic elements but all have odd atomic numbers, and even numbers of
neutrons.
Of the 11 radioisotopes of beryllium, the most stable are
10
Be with a half-life of 1.39 million years and
7
Be with a half-life of 53.22 days.
All other radioisotopes have half-lives under 13.85 seconds, most under 20 milliseconds. The least stable isotope is
6
Be, with a half-life
measured as 5.03 zeptoseconds.
The natural light-element ratio of equal protons and neutron numbers is prevented in beryllium by the extreme instability of
8
Be toward
alpha decay, which is favored due to the extremely tight binding of
4
He nuclei. The half-life for the decay of
8
Be is only 6.7(17) 10
17
seconds.
Beryllium is prevented from having a stable isotope with 4 protons and 6 neutrons by the very large mismatch in proton/neutron ratio for
such a light element. Nevertheless, this isotope,
10
Be, has a half-life of 1.39 million years, which indicates unusual stability for a light
isotope with such a large neutron/proton imbalance. Still other possible beryllium isotopes have even more severe mismatches in neutron
and proton number, and thus are even less stable.
Most
9
Be in the universe is thought to be formed by cosmic ray nucleosynthesis from cosmic ray spallation in the period between the Big
Bang and the formation of the solar system. The isotopes
7
Be, with a half-life of 53 days, and
10
Be are both cosmogenic nuclides because
they are made on a recent timescale in the solar system by spallation, like
14
C. These two radioisotopes of beryllium in the atmosphere
track the sun spot cycle and solar activity, since this affects the magnetic field that shields the Earth from cosmic rays. The rate at which
the short-lived
7
Be is transferred from the air to the ground is controlled in part by the weather.
7
Be decay in the sun is one of the sources
of solar neutrinos, and the first type ever detected using the Homestake experiment. Presence of
7
Be in sediments is often used to establish
that they are fresh, i.e. less than about 34 months in age, or about two half-lives of
7
Be.
The rate of delivery of
7
Be from the air to the ground in Japan (source M. Yamamoto et
al., Journal of Environmental Radioactivity, 2006, 86, 110131)
Contents
1 Table
1.1 Notes
Isotopes of beryllium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_beryllium
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2 See also
3 References
Table
nuclide
symbol
Z(p) N(n)

isotopic mass (u)

half-life
decay
mode(s)
[1][n 1]
daughter
isotope(s)
[n 2]
nuclear
spin
representative
isotopic
composition
(mole fraction)
range of natural
variation
(mole fraction)
5
Be
4 1 5.04079(429)# p
4
Li
(1/2+)#
6
Be
4 2 6.019726(6)
5.0(3)10
21
s
[0.092(6) MeV]
2p
4
He
0+
7
Be
[n 3]
4 3 7.01692983(11) 53.22(6) d EC
7
Li
3/2- Trace
[n 4]
8
Be
[n 5]
4 4 8.00530510(4)
6.7(17)10
17
s
[6.8(17) eV]
[citation needed]

4
He
0+
9
Be
4 5 9.0121822(4) Stable 3/2- 1.0000
10
Be
4 6 10.0135338(4) 1.3910
6
years
10
B
0+ Trace
[n 4]
11
Be
[n 6]
4 7 11.021658(7) 13.81(8) s

(97.1%)
11
B
1/2+

, (2.9%)
7
Li
12
Be
4 8 12.026921(16) 21.49(3) ms

(99.48%)
12
B
0+

, n (0.52%)
11
B
13
Be
4 9 13.03569(8) 2.7x10
-21
s n
12
Be
1/2+
14
Be
[n 7]
4 10 14.04289(14) 4.84(10) ms

, n (81.0%)
13
B
0+

(14.0%)
14
B

, 2n (5.0%)
12
B
15
Be
4 11 15.05346(54)# <200 ns
16
Be
4 12 16.06192(54)# <200 ns 2n
14
Be
0+
17
Be
4 13
^ Abbreviations:
EC: Electron capture
1.
^ Bold for stable isotopes 2.
^ Produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis, but not primordial, as it all quickly decayed to
7
Li 3.
^
a

b
cosmogenic nuclide 4.
^ Intermediate product of triple alpha process in stellar nucleosynthesis as part of the path producing
12
C 5.
^ Has 1 halo neutron 6.
^ Has 4 halo neutrons 7.
Notes
Values marked # are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from systematic trends. Spins with weak
assignment arguments are enclosed in parentheses.
See also
Isotopes of beryllium - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_beryllium
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References
^ http://www.nucleonica.net/unc.aspx 1.
Isotope masses from:
G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon (2003). "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay
properties" (http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf). Nuclear Physics A 729: 3128.
Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003NuPhA.729....3A). doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.nuclphysa.2003.11.001).
Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from:
J. R. de Laeter, J. K. Bhlke, P. De Bivre, H. Hidaka, H. S. Peiser, K. J. R. Rosman and P. D. P. Taylor (2003). "Atomic
weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report)" (http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/75/6/0683/pdf/).
Pure and Applied Chemistry 75 (6): 683800. doi:10.1351/pac200375060683 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1351%2Fpac200375060683).
M. E. Wieser (2006). "Atomic weights of the elements 2005 (IUPAC Technical Report)" (http://iupac.org/publications/pac/78
/11/2051/pdf/). Pure and Applied Chemistry 78 (11): 20512066. doi:10.1351/pac200678112051 (http://dx.doi.org
/10.1351%2Fpac200678112051). Lay summary (http://old.iupac.org/news/archives/2005/atomic-weights_revised05.html).
Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from the following sources. See editing notes on this article's talk page.
G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon (2003). "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay
properties" (http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf). Nuclear Physics A 729: 3128.
Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2003NuPhA.729....3A). doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
(http://dx.doi.org/10.1016%2Fj.nuclphysa.2003.11.001).
National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Information extracted from the NuDat 2.1 database
(http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/) (retrieved Sept. 2005).
N. E. Holden (2004). "Table of the Isotopes". In D. R. Lide. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed.). CRC Press.
Section 11. ISBN 978-0-8493-0485-9.
http://fl.water.usgs.gov/PDF_files/fs73_98_holmes.pdf
Isotopes of lithium Isotopes of beryllium Isotopes of boron
Table of nuclides
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