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Isotopes of neodymium

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Naturally occurring neodymium (Nd) is composed of 5 stable isotopes, 142Nd, 143Nd, 145Nd, 146Nd and 148Nd, with 142Nd being the most abundant (27.2% natural abundance), and 2 long-lived radioisotopes, 144Nd and 150Nd. In all, 33 radioisotopes of Neodymium have been characterized up to now, with the most stable being naturally occurring isotopes 144Nd (alpha decay, a half-life (t1/2) of 2.29×1015 years) and 150Nd (double beta decay, t1/2 of 7×1018 years). All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 11 days, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 70 seconds. This element also has 13 known meta states with the most stable being 139mNd (t1/2 5.5 hours), 135mNd (t1/2 5.5 minutes) and 133m1Nd (t1/2 ~70 seconds).

The primary decay modes before the most abundant stable isotope, 142Nd, are electron capture and positron decay, and the primary mode after is beta decay. The primary decay products before 142Nd are element Pr (praseodymium) isotopes and the primary products after are element Pm (promethium) isotopes.

Relative atomic mass: 144.242(3).

Notes

  • Evaluation of isotopic composition is for most but not all commercial samples.
  • Geologically exceptional samples are known in which the isotopic composition lies outside the reported range. The uncertainty in the atomic mass may exceed the stated value for such specimens.
  • 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.
  • Uncertainties are given in concise form in parentheses after the corresponding last digits. Uncertainty values denote one standard deviation, except isotopic composition and standard atomic mass from IUPAC, which use expanded uncertainties.
  • References

    Isotopes of neodymium Wikipedia