Isotopes of fluorine

Main isotopes of fluorine
Iso­tope Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
18F trace 109.77 min β+ (96.9%) 18O
ε (3.1%) 18O
19F 100% stable
Standard atomic weight (Ar)
  • 18.998403163(6)[1]

Although fluorine (F) has 18 known isotopes from 14F to 31F and two isomers (18mF and 26mF), only one of these isotopes is stable, that is, fluorine-19; as such, it is a monoisotopic element. The longest-lived radioisotope is 18F with a half-life of 109.771 minutes. All other isotopes have half-lives under a minute, the majority under a second, making fluorine a mononuclidic element as well. The least stable known isotope is 14F, whose half-life is 500(60) × 10−24 seconds,[2] corresponding to a spectral linewidth of about 1 MeV.

Fluorine-18

The nuclide 18F is the radionuclide of fluorine with the longest half-life, 109.771 minutes, allowing it to serve commercially as an important source of positrons. Its major use is for the production of the radiopharmaceutical fludeoxyglucose for positron emission tomography scanning in medicine.

Like all positron-emitting radioisotopes, 18F also has a probability to decay by electron capture. In this case, 18F decays into 18O, 96.86 (19)% of the time by beta plus (positron) emission and 3.14 (19)% by electron capture.[3]

It is the lightest unstable nuclide with equal odd numbers of protons and neutrons, 9 of each. (See also the "magic numbers" discussion of nuclide stability.)[4]

Fluorine-19

Fluorine-19, the only stable isotope of fluorine. Its abundance is 100%; no other isotopes of fluorine exist in significant quantities. Its binding energy is 147801 keV. Fluorine-19 is NMR-active with spin of 1/2, so it is used in fluorine-19 NMR spectroscopy.

Fluorine-20

Fluorine-20, is one of the more unstable isotopes of fluorine. It has a half-life of 11.07 seconds and undergoes beta decay, transforming into its daughter nuclide 20Ne. Its specific radioactivity is 1.885 × 109 TBq/g and has a lifetime of 15.87 seconds.

Fluorine-21

Fluorine-21, as with fluorine-20, is also one of unstable isotopes of this element. It has a half-life of 4.158 seconds. It undergoes beta decay as well, which leaves behind a daughter nuclei of 21Ne. Its specific radioactivity is 4.78 × 109 TBq/g.

Isomers

Only two nuclear isomers (long-lived excited nuclear states), fluorine-18m and fluorine-26m, have been characterized.[2] The half-life of 18mF before gamma ray emission is 162(7) nanoseconds.[2] This is less than the decay half-life of any of the fluorine radioisotope nuclear ground states except for mass numbers 14–16, 28, and 31.[2] The half-life of 26mF is 2.2(1) milliseconds; it decays mainly to the ground state of 26F or (rarely, via beta-minus decay) to one of high excited states of 26Ne with delayed neutron emission.[2]

List of isotopes

nuclide
symbol
Z(p) N(n)  
isotopic mass (u)
 
half-life decay mode(s)[5] daughter
isotope(s)[n 1]
nuclear
spin
representative
isotopic
composition
(mole fraction)
range of natural
variation
(mole fraction)
excitation energy
14F 9 5 14.03506(43)# 5×10−22 s
[910 keV]
p 13O 2-#
15F 9 6 15.01801(14) 410(60)×10−22 s
[1.0(2) MeV]
p 14O (1/2+)
16F 9 7 16.011466(9) 11(6)×10−21 s
[40(20) keV]
p 15O 0−
17F 9 8 17.00209524(27) 64.49(16) s β+ 17O 5/2+
18F[n 2] 9 9 18.0009380(6) 109.771(20) min β+ 18O 1+
18mF 1121.36(15) keV 162(7) ns IT 18F 5+
19F 9 10 18.99840322(7) Stable 1/2+ 1.0000
20F 9 11 19.99998132(8) 11.163(8) s β 20Ne 2+
21F 9 12 20.9999490(19) 4.158(20) s β 21Ne 5/2+
22F 9 13 22.002999(13) 4.23(4) s β (89.0%) 22Ne 4+,(3+)
βn (11.0%) 21Ne
23F 9 14 23.00357(9) 2.23(14) s β (86.0%) 23Ne 5/2+
βn (14.0%) 22Ne
24F 9 15 24.00812(8) 400(50) ms β (94.1%) 24Ne (1,2,3)+
βn (5.9%) 23Ne
25F 9 16 25.01210(11) 50(6) ms β (76.0%) 25Ne (5/2+)#
βn (24.0%) 24Ne
26F 9 17 26.01962(18) 9.6(8) ms β (68.0%) 26Ne 1+
βn (32.0%) 25Ne
26mF[2] 643.4(1) keV 2.2(1) ms IT (82±11 %) 26F (4+)
βn (12±8 %) 25Ne
27F 9 18 27.02676(40) 4.9(2) ms β 27Ne 5/2+#
28F 9 19 28.03567(55)# <40 ns n 27F
29F 9 20 29.04326(62)# 2.6(3) ms β 29Ne 5/2+#
30F 9 21 30.05250(64)# <260 ns
31F 9 22 31.06043(64)# 1# ms [>260 ns] 5/2+#
  1. Bold for stable isotopes
  2. Has medicinal uses

Notes

References

  1. Meija, J.; et al. (2016). "Atomic weights of the elements 2013 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure Appl. Chem. 88 (3): 265–91. doi:10.1515/pac-2015-0305.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Audi, G.; Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S. (2017), "The NUBASE2016 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF), Chinese Physics C, 41 (3): 030001–1—030001–138, Bibcode:2017ChPhC..41c0001A, doi:10.1088/1674-1137/41/3/030001
  3. F-18 branching ratio for positron emission vs. EC
  4. National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 2.1 database – Fluorine-18". Brookhaven National Laboratory. Retrieved 19 July 2014.
  5. "Universal Nuclide Chart". nucleonica. (Registration required (help)).
Isotopes of oxygen Isotopes of fluorine Isotopes of neon
Table of nuclides
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