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Isotopes of gold



Gold (Au) has one stable isotope, 197Au, and 18 radioisotopes with 195Au being the most stable with a half-life of 186 days.

Gold has been proposed as a salting material for nuclear weapons (cobalt is another, better-known salting material). A jacket of natural gold, irradiated by the intense high-energy neutron flux from an exploding thermonuclear weapon, would transmute into the radioactive isotope Au-198 with a halftime report of 2.697 days and produce approximately .411 MeV of gamma radiation, significantly increasing the radioactivity of the weapon's fallout for several days. Such a weapon is not known to have ever been built, tested, or used.
Standard atomic mass: 196.966569(4) u

Table

nuclide
symbol
Z(p) N(n)  
isotopic mass (u)
 
half-life nuclear
spin
representative
isotopic
composition
(mole fraction)
range of natural
variation
(mole fraction)
excitation energy
169Au 79 90 168.99808(32)# 150# µs 1/2+#
170Au 79 91 169.99612(22)# 310(50) µs [286(+50-40) µs] (2-)
170mAu 275(14) keV 630(60) µs [0.62(+6-5) ms] (9+)
171Au 79 92 170.991879(28) 30(5) µs (1/2+)
171mAu 250(16) keV 1.014(19) ms 11/2-
172Au 79 93 171.99004(17)# 4.7(11) ms high
173Au 79 94 172.986237(28) 25(1) ms (1/2+)
173mAu 214(23) keV 14.0(9) ms (11/2-)
174Au 79 95 173.98476(11)# 139(3) ms low
174mAu 360(70)# keV 171(29) ms high
175Au 79 96 174.98127(5) 100# ms 1/2+#
175mAu 200(30)# keV 156(3) ms 11/2-#
176Au 79 97 175.98010(11)# 1.08(17) s [0.84(+17-14) s] (5-)
176mAu 150(100)# keV 860(160) ms (7+)
177Au 79 98 176.976865(14) 1462(32) ms (1/2+,3/2+)
177mAu 216(26) keV 1.180(12) s 11/2-
178Au 79 99 177.97603(6) 2.6(5) s
179Au 79 100 178.973213(18) 7.1(3) s 5/2-#
179mAu 99(16) keV (11/2-)
180Au 79 101 179.972521(23) 8.1(3) s
181Au 79 102 180.970079(21) 13.7(14) s (3/2-)
182Au 79 103 181.969618(22) 15.5(4) s (2+)
183Au 79 104 182.967593(11) 42.8(10) s (5/2)-
183m1Au 73.3(4) keV >1 µs (1/2)+
183m2Au 230.6(6) keV <1 µs (11/2)-
184Au 79 105 183.967452(24) 20.6(9) s 5+
184mAu 68.46(1) keV 47.6(14) s 2+
185Au 79 106 184.965789(28) 4.25(6) min 5/2-
185mAu 100(100)# keV 6.8(3) min 1/2+#
186Au 79 107 185.965953(23) 10.7(5) min 3-
186mAu 227.77(7) keV 110(10) ns 2+
187Au 79 108 186.964568(27) 8.4(3) min 1/2+
187mAu 120.51(16) keV 2.3(1) s 9/2-
188Au 79 109 187.965324(22) 8.84(6) min 1(-)
189Au 79 110 188.963948(22) 28.7(3) min 1/2+
189m1Au 247.23(16) keV 4.59(11) min 11/2-
189m2Au 325.11(16) keV 190(15) ns 9/2-
189m3Au 2554.7(12) keV 242(10) ns 31/2+
190Au 79 111 189.964700(17) 42.8(10) min 1-
190mAu 200(150)# keV 125(20) ms 11-#
191Au 79 112 190.96370(4) 3.18(8) h 3/2+
191m1Au 266.2(5) keV 920(110) ms (11/2-)
191m2Au 2490(1) keV >400 ns
192Au 79 113 191.964813(17) 4.94(9) h 1-
192m1Au 135.41(25) keV 29 ms (5#)+
192m2Au 431.6(5) keV 160(20) ms (11-)
193Au 79 114 192.964150(11) 17.65(15) h 3/2+
193m1Au 290.19(3) keV 3.9(3) s 11/2-
193m2Au 2486.5(6) keV 150(50) ns (31/2+)
194Au 79 115 193.965365(11) 38.02(10) h 1-
194m1Au 107.4(5) keV 600(8) ms (5+)
194m2Au 475.8(6) keV 420(10) ms (11-)
195Au 79 116 194.9650346(14) 186.098(47) d 3/2+
195mAu 318.58(4) keV 30.5(2) s 11/2-
196Au 79 117 195.966570(3) 6.1669(6) d 2-
196m1Au 84.660(20) keV 8.1(2) s 5+
196m2Au 595.66(4) keV 9.6(1) h 12-
197Au 79 118 196.9665687(6) stable 3/2+ 1.0000
197mAu 409.15(8) keV 7.73(6) s 11/2-
198Au 79 119 197.9682423(6) 2.69517(21) d 2-
198m1Au 312.2200(20) keV 124(4) ns 5+
198m2Au 811.7(15) keV 2.27(2) d (12-)
199Au 79 120 198.9687652(6) 3.139(7) d 3/2+
199mAu 548.9368(21) keV 440(30) µs (11/2)-
200Au 79 121 199.97073(5) 48.4(3) min 1(-)
200mAu 970(70) keV 18.7(5) h 12-
201Au 79 122 200.971657(3) 26(1) min 3/2+
202Au 79 123 201.97381(18) 28.8(19) s (1-)
203Au 79 124 202.975155(3) 53(2) s 3/2+
204Au 79 125 203.97772(22)# 39.8(9) s (2-)
205Au 79 126 204.97987(32)# 31(2) s 3/2+

Notes

  • 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

  • Isotope masses from Ame2003 Atomic Mass Evaluation by G. Audi, A.H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon in Nuclear Physics A729 (2003).
  • Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure Appl. Chem. Vol. 75, No. 6, pp. 683-800, (2003) and Atomic Weights Revised (2005).
  • Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from these sources. Editing notes on this article's talk page.
    • Audi, Bersillon, Blachot, Wapstra. The Nubase2003 evaluation of nuclear and decay properties, Nuc. Phys. A 729, pp. 3-128 (2003).
    • National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Information extracted from the NuDat 2.1 database (retrieved Sept. 2005).
    • David R. Lide (ed.), Norman E. Holden in CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition, online version. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida (2005). Section 11, Table of the Isotopes.


Isotopes of platinum Isotopes of gold Isotopes of mercury
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This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Isotopes_of_gold". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
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