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Isotopes of zinc

Isotopes of zinc (30Zn)
Main isotopes[1] Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
64Zn 49.2% stable
65Zn synth 244 d β+ 65Cu
66Zn 27.7% stable
67Zn 4% stable
68Zn 18.5% stable
69Zn synth 56 min β 69Ga
69mZn synth 13.8 h β 69Ga
70Zn 0.6% stable
71Zn synth 2.4 min β 71Ga
71mZn synth 4 h β 71Ga
72Zn synth 46.5 h β 72Ga
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Zn)

Naturally occurring zinc (30Zn) is composed of the 5 stable isotopes 64Zn, 66Zn, 67Zn, 68Zn, and 70Zn with 64Zn being the most abundant (48.6% natural abundance). Twenty-eight radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being 65Zn with a half-life of 244.26 days, and then 72Zn with a half-life of 46.5 hours. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 14 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 1 second. This element also has 10 meta states.

Zinc has been proposed as a "salting" material for nuclear weapons. A jacket of isotopically enriched 64Zn, irradiated by the intense high-energy neutron flux from an exploding thermonuclear weapon, would transmute into the radioactive isotope 65Zn with a half-life of 244 days and produce approximately 1.115 MeV[4] of gamma radiation, significantly increasing the radioactivity of the weapon's fallout for several years. Such a weapon is not known to have ever been built, tested, or used.[5]

  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. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Zinc". CIAAW. 2007.
  3. ^ 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.
  4. ^ Roost, E.; Funck, E.; Spernol, A.; Vaninbroukx, R. (1972). "The decay of 65Zn". Zeitschrift für Physik. 250 (5): 395–412. Bibcode:1972ZPhy..250..395D. doi:10.1007/BF01379752. S2CID 124728537.
  5. ^ D. T. Win, M. Al Masum (2003). "Weapons of Mass Destruction" (PDF). Assumption University Journal of Technology. 6 (4): 199–219.

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