Isotopes of palladium

Naturally occurring palladium (Pd) is composed of six stable isotopes, ¹⁰²Pd, ¹⁰⁴Pd, ¹⁰⁵Pd, ¹⁰⁶Pd, ¹⁰⁸Pd, and ¹¹⁰Pd, although two of them are theoretically unstable. The most stable radioisotopes are ¹⁰⁷Pd with a half-life of 6.5 million years, ¹⁰³Pd with a half-life of 17 days, and ¹⁰⁰Pd with a half-life of 3.63 days. Twenty-three other radioisotopes have been characterized with atomic weights ranging from 90.949 u (⁹¹Pd) to 123.937 u (¹²⁴Pd). Most of these have half-lives that are less than a half an hour except ¹⁰¹Pd (half-life: 8.47 hours), ¹⁰⁹Pd (half-life: 13.7 hours), and ¹¹²Pd (half-life: 21 hours).

The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, ¹⁰⁶Pd, is electron capture and the primary mode after is beta decay. The primary decay product before ¹⁰⁶Pd is rhodium and the primary product after is silver.

Radiogenic ¹⁰⁷Ag is a decay product of ¹⁰⁷Pd and was first discovered in the Santa Clara, California meteorite of 1978.^[1] The discoverers suggest that the coalescence and differentiation of iron-cored small planets may have occurred 10 million years after a nucleosynthetic event. ¹⁰⁷Pd versus Ag correlations observed in bodies, which have clearly been melted since accretion of the solar system, must reflect the presence of short-lived nuclides in the early solar system.^[2]

Standard atomic mass: 106.42(1) u

Palladium-103

Palladium-103 is a radioisotope of the element palladium which has uses in radiation therapy for prostate cancer and uveal melanoma. Palladium-103 may be created from palladium-102 or from Rhodium-103 using a Cyclotron. Palladium-103 has a half-life of 16.99^[3] days and decays by electron capture to rhodium-103, emitting gamma-rays with 21 keV of energy.

Palladium-107

Palladium-107 is the second longest lived (halflife of 6.5 million years^[3]) and least radioactive (decay energy only 33 KeV, specific activity 5×10⁻⁵ Ci/g) of the 7 long-lived fission products. It undergoes pure beta decay (no gamma radiation) to Ag-107.

Its yield from thermal neutron fission of uranium-235 is 0.1629% per fission, only 1/4 that of iodine-129, and only 1/40 those of Tc-99, Zr-93, and Cs-135. Yield from U-233 is slightly lower, but yield from Pu-239 is much higher, 3.3%. Yields are higher in fast fission or in fission of heavier nuclei.

According to ^[4] fission palladium contains the isotopes ¹⁰⁴Pd (16.9%),¹⁰⁵Pd (29.3%), ¹⁰⁶Pd (21.3%), ¹⁰⁷Pd (17%), ¹⁰⁸Pd (11.7%) and ¹¹⁰Pd (3.8%). According to another source, the proportion of ¹⁰⁷Pd is 9.2% for palladium from thermal neutron fission of U-235, 11.8% for U-233, and 20.4% for Pu-239. (and the Pu-239 yield of palladium is about 10 times that of U-235.)

Because of this dilution and because ¹⁰⁵Pd has 11 times the neutron absorption cross section, ¹⁰⁷Pd is not amenable to disposal by nuclear transmutation. However, as a noble metal, palladium is not as mobile in the environment as iodine or technetium.

Table

1. ↑ Abbreviations:
   EC: Electron capture
   IT: Isomeric transition
2. ↑ Bold for stable isotopes
3. ↑ Believed to decay by β⁺β⁺ to ¹⁰²Ru
4. ↑ Used in medicine
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Theoretically capable of spontaneous fission
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 6.3 6.4 Fission product
7. ↑ Long-lived fission product
8. ↑ Believed to decay by β^-β^- to ¹¹⁰Cd with a half-life over 6×10¹⁷ years

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.
• 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

• Patent application for Palladium-103 implantable radiation-delivery device (accessed 12/7/05)

• 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. 
• 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. 
  • 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. 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. 
  • National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 2.1 database". Brookhaven National Laboratory. 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 978-0-8493-0485-9.