Isotopes of vanadium

Naturally occurring vanadium (V) is composed of one stable isotope ⁵¹V and one radioactive isotope ⁵⁰V with a half-life of 1.5×10¹⁷ years. 24 artificial radioisotopes have been characterized (in the range of mass number between 40 and 65) with the most stable being ⁴⁹V with a half-life of 330 days, and ⁴⁸V with a half-life of 15.9735 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives shorter than an hour, the majority of them below 10 seconds, the least stable being ⁴²V with a half-life shorter than 55 nanoseconds, with all of the isotopes lighter than it, and none of the heavier, have unknown half-lives. In 4 isotopes, metastable excited states were found (including 2 metastable states for ⁶⁰V), which adds up to 5 meta states.

The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope ⁵¹V is electron capture. The next most common mode is beta decay. The primary decay products before ⁵¹V are element 22 (titanium) isotopes and the primary products after are element 24 (chromium) isotopes.
Standard atomic mass: 50.9415(1) u

Table

1. ^ Bold for isotopes with half-lives longer than the age of the universe (nearly stable)
2. ^ Abbreviations:
   EC: Electron capture
   IT: Isomeric transition
3. ^ Bold for stable isotopes
4. ^ Primordial radionuclide

Notes

• 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

1. ^ http://www.nucleonica.net/unc.aspx

• 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. 

• History of discovery: A. Shore, A. Fritsch, M. Heim, A. Schuh, M. Thoennessen. Discovery of the Vanadium Isotopes. arXiv:0907.1994 (2009).