Tungsten

:This article is about the chemical element. "Tungsten" may also refer to the Tungsten Handheld PDA or to the Tungsten pickups.

Isotopes

Naturally occurring tungsten consists of five isotopes whose half-lives are so long that they can be considered stable. All can decay into isotopes of element 72 (hafnium) by alpha emission. Alpha decay has only been observed, in 2003, in the lightest and rarest of them, 180W. On average, two alpha decays of 180W occur in one gram of natural tungsten per year.

Related Topics:
Isotope - Half-lives - Stable - Hafnium - Alpha emission

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

27 artificial radioisotopes of tungsten have been characterized, the most stable of which are 181W with a half-life of 121.2 days, 185W with a half-life of 75.1 days, 188W with a half-life of 69.4 days and 178W with a half-life of 21.6 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives of less than 24 hours, and most of these have half-lives that are less than 8 minutes. Tungsten also has 4 meta states, the most stable being 179mW (t½ 6.4 minutes).

Related Topics:
Radioisotope - Half-life - Radioactive - Meta state

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~