Table of nuclides

A chart of nuclides. Above, cut into three parts for better presentation; below, combined.

A table of nuclides or chart of nuclides is a two-dimensional graph in which one axis represents the number of neutrons and the other represents the number of protons in an atomic nucleus. Each point plotted on the graph thus represents the nuclide of a real or hypothetical chemical element. This system of ordering nuclides can offer a greater insight into the characteristics of isotopes than the better-known periodic table, which shows only elements instead of each of their isotopes.

Description and utility

A chart or table of nuclides is a simple map to the nuclear, or radioactive, behaviour of nuclides, as it distinguishes the isotopes of an element. It contrasts with a periodic table, which only maps their chemical behavior, since isotopes of the same element do not differ chemically. Nuclide charts organize isotopes along the X axis by their numbers of neutrons and along the Y axis by their numbers of protons, out to the limits of the neutron and proton drip lines. This representation was first published by Giorgio Fea in 1935,[1] and expanded by Emilio Segrè in 1945 or G. Seaborg. In 1958, Walter Seelmann-Eggebert and Gerda Pfennig published the first edition of the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart. Its 7th edition was made available in 2006. Today, one finds several nuclide charts, four of them have a wide distribution: the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart, the Strasbourg Universal Nuclide Chart, the Chart of the Nuclides from the JAEA and the Nuclide Chart from Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory.[2] It has become a basic tool of the nuclear community.

Trends in the chart of nuclides

5 6H 7He 8Li 9Be 10B 11C 12N 13O 14F Ne 11
6 7H 8He 9Li 10Be 11B 12C 13N 14O 15F 16Ne Na 12
7 9He 10Li 11Be 12B 13C 14N 15O 16F 17Ne 18Na Mg 13
8 10He 11Li 12Be 13B 14C 15N 16O 17F 18Ne 19Na 20Mg Al 14
9 12Li 13Be 14B 15C 16N 17O 18F 19Ne 20Na 21Mg 22Al Si
Fragment of table of nuclides for Polonium, Radium, Copernicium and Curium, as seen on a monument in front of University of Warsaw's Centre of New Technologies

Available representations

Charts of the nuclides
article description
Table of nuclides (complete) Presents the data (colour-coded by half-life) via a single, contiguous chart that requires both vertical and horizontal scrolling to view all its contents (262 kB total HTML download) .
Table of nuclides (segmented, wide) Presents the data via four separate charts, each typically with 30 elements. Depending on the browser, no horizontal scrolling is required in window widths of at least 1225 to 1440 pixels (311 kB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (segmented, narrow) Presents the data via eight separate charts, each typically with 15 elements. Horizontal scrolling is not required for all but the smallest computer monitors (321 KB total HTML download).
List of nuclides Presents the data in a one-dimensional list where the 905 nuclides which are either stable or radioactive with half lives greater than 60 minutes are sorted by their half-life, including specific mass excess and decay-modes, no horizontal scrolling is required (95  kB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (combined) Provides both the eight-chart, segmented presentation and the single, contiguous chart. Provides quick-jump hyperlinks to jump between the two. Features expanded introductory text for first-time readers. (588 kB total HTML download).
File:NuclideMap.PNG Single image (not HTML) of the National Nuclear Data Center chart from the NuDat 2 database (3.9 MB)
File:Table isotopes en.svg Single vector image (not HTML) of the nuclides colored by decay mode (215 KB)
Articles on isotopes of an element
article description
Isotope index A periodic table that provides links to a separate article on each element and its isotopes.
Isotope lists A page that provides data on the isotopes of each element in groups of 24 elements.

References

  1. Georgio Fea. Il Nuovo Cimento 2 (1935) 368
  2. "What We Do: The Chart of Nuclides". Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. Retrieved 14 May 2009.
  3. Holden,CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 90th Edition §11

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Thursday, October 22, 2015. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.