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Isotopes of osmium

Isotopes of osmium (76Os)
Main isotopes[1] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
184Os 0.02% 1.12×1013 y[2] α 180W
185Os synth 92.95 d ε 185Re
186Os 1.59% 2.0×1015 y α 182W
187Os 1.96% stable
188Os 13.2% stable
189Os 16.1% stable
190Os 26.3% stable
191Os synth 14.99 d β 191Ir
192Os 40.8% stable
193Os synth 29.83 h β 193Ir
194Os synth 6 y β 194Ir
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Os)

Osmium (76Os) has seven naturally occurring isotopes, five of which are stable: 187Os, 188Os, 189Os, 190Os, and (most abundant) 192Os. The other natural isotopes, 184Os, and 186Os, have extremely long half-life (1.12×1013 years and 2×1015 years, respectively) and for practical purposes can be considered to be stable as well. 187Os is the daughter of 187Re (half-life 4.12×1010 years) and is most often measured in an 187Os/188Os ratio. This ratio, as well as the 187Re/188Os ratio, have been used extensively in dating terrestrial as well as meteoric rocks. It has also been used to measure the intensity of continental weathering over geologic time and to fix minimum ages for stabilization of the mantle roots of continental cratons. However, the most notable application of Os in dating has been in conjunction with iridium, to analyze the layer of shocked quartz along the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary that marks the extinction of the dinosaurs 66 million years ago. Isotopically pure 192Os, were it available, would be the densest stable material on earth at 22.80 grams per cubic centimeter.

There are also 31 artificial radioisotopes,[5] the longest-lived of which is 194Os with a half-life of six years; all others have half-lives under 93 days. There are also ten known nuclear isomers, the longest-lived of which is 191mOs with a half-life of 13.10 hours. All isotopes and nuclear isomers of osmium are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed.

  1. ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae.
  2. ^ Peters, Stefan T.M.; Münker, Carsten; Becker, Harry; Schulz, Toni (April 2014). "Alpha-decay of 184Os revealed by radiogenic 180W in meteorites: Half life determination and viability as geochronometer". Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 391: 69–76. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2014.01.030.
  3. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Osmium". CIAAW. 1991.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Flegenheimer, Juan (2014). "The mystery of the disappearing isotope". Revista Virtual de Química. 6 (4): 1139–1142. doi:10.5935/1984-6835.20140073.

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