Isotopes of hydrogen

Isotopes of hydrogen (1H)
Main isotopes Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
1H 99.9855%
Preview warning: Infobox H isotopes: Abundance percentage not recognised "na=99.9855%" cat#%
 stable
2H 0.0145%
Preview warning: Infobox H isotopes: Abundance percentage not recognised "na=0.0145%" cat#%
 stable
3H trace 12.32 y β− 3He
Standard atomic weight Ar°(H)

Hydrogen (1H) has three naturally occurring isotopes: 1H, 2H, and 3H. 1H and 2H are stable, while 3H has a half-life of 12.32(2) years.[3][nb 1] Heavier isotopes also exist; all are synthetic and have a half-life of less than 1 zeptosecond (10−21 s).[4][5] Of these, 5H is the least stable, while 7H is the most.

Hydrogen is the only element whose isotopes have different names that remain in common use today: 2H is deuterium[6] and 3H is tritium.[7] The symbols D and T are sometimes used for deuterium and tritium; IUPAC (International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry) accepts said symbols, but recommends the standard isotopic symbols 2H and 3H, to avoid confusion in alphabetic sorting of chemical formulas.[8] 1H, with no neutrons, may be called protium to disambiguate.[9] (During the early study of radioactivity, some other heavy radioisotopes were given names, but such names are rarely used today.)

The three most stable isotopes of hydrogen: protium (A = 1), deuterium (A = 2), and tritium (A = 3).
  1. ^ "Standard Atomic Weights: Hydrogen". 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.
  3. ^ Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (March 2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear physics properties \ast". Chinese Physics C. 45 (3): 030001. Bibcode:2021ChPhC..45c0001K. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae. ISSN 1674-1137. S2CID 233794940.
  4. ^ Y. B. Gurov; et al. (2004). "Spectroscopy of superheavy hydrogen isotopes in stopped-pion absorption by nuclei". Physics of Atomic Nuclei. 68 (3): 491–497. Bibcode:2005PAN....68..491G. doi:10.1134/1.1891200. S2CID 122902571.
  5. ^ A. A. Korsheninnikov; et al. (2003). "Experimental Evidence for the Existence of 7H and for a Specific Structure of 8He". Physical Review Letters. 90 (8): 082501. Bibcode:2003PhRvL..90h2501K. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.90.082501. PMID 12633420.
  6. ^ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "deuterium". doi:10.1351/goldbook.D01648
  7. ^ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "tritium". doi:10.1351/goldbook.T06513
  8. ^ International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (2005). Nomenclature of Inorganic Chemistry (IUPAC Recommendations 2005). Cambridge (UK): RSC–IUPAC. ISBN 0-85404-438-8. p. 48. Electronic version.
  9. ^ IUPAC, Compendium of Chemical Terminology, 2nd ed. (the "Gold Book") (1997). Online corrected version: (2006–) "protium". doi:10.1351/goldbook.P04903


Cite error: There are <ref group=nb> tags on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=nb}} template (see the help page).