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Naturally occurring cadmium (₄₈Cd) is composed of 8 isotopes. For two of them, natural radioactivity has been observed, and three others are predicted to possibly decay though this has not been observed; it may be presumed the half-lives are extremely long. The two natural radioactive isotopes are ¹¹³Cd (beta decay, half-life 8.04×10¹⁵ years) and ¹¹⁶Cd (double beta decay, half-life 2.69×10¹⁹ years). The other three are ¹⁰⁶Cd, ¹⁰⁸Cd (double electron capture), and ¹¹⁴Cd (double beta decay); only lower limits on their decays have been set. Only three isotopes—¹¹⁰Cd, ¹¹¹Cd, and ¹¹²Cd—are theoretically stable. Among the isotopes absent in natural cadmium, the most long-lived are ¹⁰⁹Cd with a half-life of 461.3 days, and ¹¹⁵Cd with a half-life of 53.46 hours. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 7 hours and the majority of these are less than 5 minutes. This element also has 12 known meta states, with the most stable being ^113mCd (t_1/2 13.9 years), ^115mCd (t_1/2 44.6 days) and ^117mCd (t_1/2 3.44 hours).

The known isotopes of cadmium range from ⁹⁵Cd to ¹³²Cd. The primary decay mode before the stable isotope ¹¹²Cd is electron capture to isotopes of silver, and after, beta emission to isotopes of indium.

A 2021 study has shown at high ionic strengths, cadmium isotope fractionation mainly depends on its complexation with carboxylic sites. At low ionic strengths, nonspecific cadmium binding induced by electrostatic attractions plays a dominant role and promotes cadmium isotope fractionation during complexation.^[4]

List of isotopes

Cadmium-113m

Cadmium-113m is a cadmium radioisotope and nuclear isomer with a half-life of 13.9 years. In a normal thermal reactor, it has a very low fission product yield, plus its large neutron capture cross section means that most of even the small amount produced is destroyed in the course of the nuclear fuel's burnup; thus, this isotope is not a significant contributor to nuclear waste.

Fast fission or fission of some heavier actinides^[which?] will produce ^113mCd at higher yields.

See also

Daughter products other than cadmium

• Isotopes of tin
• Isotopes of indium
• Isotopes of silver
• Isotopes of palladium
• Isotopes of rhodium

References

• Isotope masses from:
  • Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
• Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from:
  • de Laeter, John Robert; Böhlke, John Karl; De Bièvre, Paul; Hidaka, Hiroshi; Peiser, H. Steffen; Rosman, Kevin J. R.; Taylor, Philip D. P. (2003). "Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. 75 (6): 683–800. doi:10.1351/pac200375060683.
  • Wieser, Michael E. (2006). "Atomic weights of the elements 2005 (IUPAC Technical Report)". Pure and Applied Chemistry. 78 (11): 2051–2066. doi:10.1351/pac200678112051.
• "News & Notices: Standard Atomic Weights Revised". International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry. 19 October 2005.
• Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from the following sources.
  • Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
  • National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 3.0 database". Brookhaven National Laboratory.
  • Holden, Norman E. (2004). "11. Table of the Isotopes". In Lide, David R. (ed.). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-0485-9.