Lithium

: This article is about the chemical element Lithium. For other uses, see Lithium (disambiguation).

Isotopes

Naturally occurring lithium is composed of 2 stable isotopes Li-6 and Li-7 with Li-7 being the most abundant (92.5% natural abundance). Seven radioisotopes have been characterized with the most stable being Li-8 with a half-life of 838 ms and Li-9 with a half-life of 178.3 ms. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lifes that are less than 8.6 ms. The shortest-lived isotope of lithium is 4Li which decays through proton emission and has a half-life of 7.58043x10-23 s.

Related Topics:
Isotope - Natural abundance - Radioisotope - Half-life - Ms - Radioactive - Proton emission - S

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Lithium-7 is one of the primordial elements (produced in Big Bang nucleosynthesis). Lithium isotopes fractionate substantially during a wide variety of natural processes, including mineral formation (chemical precipitation), metabolism, ion exchange (Li substitutes for magnesium and iron in octahedral sites in clay minerals, where Li-6 is preferential over Li-7), hyperfiltration, and rock alteration.

Related Topics:
Primordial elements - Big Bang nucleosynthesis - Mineral formation - Metabolism - Ion exchange - Magnesium - Iron - Clay

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