Isotopes of boron

Boron (B) naturally occurs in two isotopes, ¹⁰B and ¹¹B, the later of which makes up about 80% of natural boron. 14 radioisotopes have been discovered, with mass numbers from 6 to 21, all with short half-lives, the longest being that of ⁸B, with a half-life of only 770 ms and ¹²B with a half-life of 20.2 milliseconds. All other isotopes have half-lives shorter than 17.35 milliseconds, with the least stable isotope being ⁷B, with a half-life of 150 yoctoseconds (ys). Those isotopes with mass below 10 decay into helium (via short-lived isotopes of beryllium for ⁷B and ⁹B) while those with mass above 11 mostly become carbon.

Standard atomic mass: 10.811(7) u

Table

1. ^ Subsequently decays by double proton emission to ⁴He for a net reaction of ⁷B → ⁴He + 3 ¹H
2. ^ Has 1 halo proton
3. ^ immediately decays into two α particles, for a net reaction of ⁹B → 2 ⁴He + ¹H
4. ^ Immediately decays into three α particles, for a net reaction of ¹²B → 3 ⁴He +  e⁻
5. ^ ^{a b} Has 2 halo neutrons

Notes

• The precision of the isotope abundances and atomic mass is limited through variations. The given ranges should be applicable to any normal terrestrial material.
• Commercially available materials may have been subjected to an undisclosed or inadvertent isotopic fractionation. Substantial deviations from the given mass and composition can occur.
• 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.^[2]

References

Notes

General references

• Isotope masses from:
  • G. Audi, A. H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon (2003). "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties". Nuclear Physics A 729: 3–128. Bibcode 2003NuPhA.729....3A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf. 
• Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from:
  • J. R. de Laeter, J. K. Böhlke, P. De Bièvre, 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)". Pure and Applied Chemistry 75 (6): 683–800. doi:10.1351/pac200375060683. http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/75/6/0683/pdf/. 
  • M. E. Wieser (2006). "Atomic weights of the elements 2005 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry 78 (11): 2051–2066. doi:10.1351/pac200678112051. http://iupac.org/publications/pac/78/11/2051/pdf/. Lay summary. 
• 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". Nuclear Physics A 729: 3–128. Bibcode 2003NuPhA.729....3A. doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/nubase/Nubase2003.pdf. 
  • National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 2.1 database". Brookhaven National Laboratory. http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/. Retrieved September 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 978-0849304859.