Isotopes of boron

Isotopes of boron (5B)
Main isotopes Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
8B synth 771.9 ms β+ 8Be
10B [18.9%, 20.4%]
Preview warning: Infobox B isotopes: Abundance percentage not recognised "na=[18.9%, 20.4%]" cat#%
stable
11B [79.6%, 81.1%]
Preview warning: Infobox B isotopes: Abundance percentage not recognised "na=[79.6%, 81.1%]" cat#%
stable
Standard atomic weight Ar°(B)

Boron (5B) naturally occurs as isotopes 10
B
and 11
B
, the latter of which makes up about 80% of natural boron. There are 13 radioisotopes that have been discovered, with mass numbers from 7 to 21, all with short half-lives, the longest being that of 8
B
, with a half-life of only 771.9(9) ms and 12
B
with a half-life of 20.20(2) ms. All other isotopes have half-lives shorter than 17.35 ms. Those isotopes with mass below 10 decay into helium (via short-lived isotopes of beryllium for 7
B
and 9
B
) while those with mass above 11 mostly become carbon.

A chart showing the abundances of the naturally occurring isotopes of boron.
  1. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Boron". CIAAW. 2009.
  2. ^ Prohaska, Thomas; Irrgeher, Johanna; Benefield, Jacqueline; Böhlke, John K.; Chesson, Lesley A.; Coplen, Tyler B.; Ding, Tiping; Dunn, Philip J. H.; Gröning, Manfred; Holden, Norman E.; Meijer, Harro A. J. (2022-05-04). "Standard atomic weights of the elements 2021 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. doi:10.1515/pac-2019-0603. ISSN 1365-3075.