Isotopes of fluorine

Template:Short description Template:Infobox fluorine isotopes Fluorine (₉F) has 19 known isotopes ranging from F to F and two isomers (F and F). Only fluorine-19 is stable and naturally occurring in more than trace quantities; therefore, fluorine is a monoisotopic and mononuclidic element.

The longest-lived radioisotope is F; it has a half-life of . All other fluorine isotopes have half-lives of less than a minute, and most of those less than a second. The least stable known isotope is F, whose half-life is ,Template:NUBASE2020 corresponding to a resonance width of .

List of isotopes

Template:Isotopes table |-id=Fluorine-13 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 4 | # | | p ? | O ? | 1/2+# | |-id=Fluorine-14 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 5 | |
[] | p ? | O ? | 2− | |-id=Fluorine-15 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 6 | |
[] | p | O | 1/2+ | |-id=Fluorine-16 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 7 | |
[] | p | O | 0− | |-id=Fluorine-17 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 8 | | | β⁺ | O | 5/2+ | |- | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 9 | | | β⁺ | O | 1+ | Trace |-id=Fluorine-18m | style="text-indent:1em" | F | colspan="3" style="text-indent:2em" | | | IT | F | 5+ | |- | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 10 | | colspan=3 align=center|Stable | 1/2+ | 1 |- | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 11 | | | β⁻ | Ne | 2+ | |- | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 12 | | | β⁻ | Ne | 5/2+ | |-id=Fluorine-22 | rowspan=2|F | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 13 | rowspan=2| | rowspan=2| | β⁻ (> ) | Ne | rowspan=2|(4+) | rowspan=2| |- | β⁻n (< ) | Ne |-id=Fluorine-23 | rowspan=2|F | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 14 | rowspan=2| | rowspan=2| | β⁻ (> ) | Ne | rowspan=2|5/2+ | rowspan=2| |- | β⁻n (< ) | Ne |-id=Fluorine-24 | rowspan=2|F | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=2 style="text-align:right" | 15 | rowspan=2| | rowspan=2| | β⁻ (> ) | Ne | rowspan=2|3+ | rowspan=2| |- | β⁻n (< ) | Ne |-id=Fluorine-25 | rowspan=3|F | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 16 | rowspan=3| | rowspan=3| | β⁻ () | Ne | rowspan=3|(5/2+) | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻n () | Ne |- | β⁻2n ? | Ne ? |-id=Fluorine-26 | rowspan=3|F | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 17 | rowspan=3| | rowspan=3| | β⁻ () | Ne | rowspan=3|1+ | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻n () | Ne |- | β⁻2n ? | Ne ? |-id=Fluorine-26m | rowspan=3 style="text-indent:1em" | F | rowspan=3 colspan="3" style="text-indent:2em" | | rowspan=3 | | IT () | F | rowspan=3|(4+) | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻n () | Ne |- | β⁻ ? | Ne ? |-id=Fluorine-27 | rowspan=3|F | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 18 | rowspan=3| | rowspan=3| | β⁻n () | Ne | rowspan=3|5/2+# | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻ () | Ne |- | β⁻2n ? | Ne ? |-id=Fluorine-28 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 19 | | | n | F | (4−) | |-id=Fluorine-29 | rowspan=3|F | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 20 | rowspan=3| | rowspan=3| | β⁻n () | Ne | rowspan=3|(5/2+) | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻ () | Ne |- | β⁻2n ? | Ne ? |-id=Fluorine-30 | F | style="text-align:right" | 9 | style="text-align:right" | 21 | # | | n | F | | |-id=Fluorine-31 | rowspan=3|F | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 9 | rowspan=3 style="text-align:right" | 22 | rowspan=3|# | rowspan=3|# [> ] | β⁻ ? | Ne ? | rowspan=3|5/2+# | rowspan=3| |- | β⁻n ? | Ne ? |- | β⁻2n ? | Ne ? |- Template:Isotopes table/footer

Fluorine-18

Of the unstable nuclides of fluorine, F has the longest half-life, . It decays to O via β⁺ decay. For this reason F is a commercially important source of positrons. Its major value is in the production of the radiopharmaceutical fludeoxyglucose, used in positron emission tomography in medicine.

Fluorine-18 is the lightest unstable nuclide with equal odd numbers of protons and neutrons, having 9 of each. (See also the "magic numbers" discussion of nuclide stability.)

Fluorine-19

Fluorine-19 is the only stable isotope of fluorine. Its abundance is ; no other isotopes of fluorine exist in significant quantities. Its binding energy is . Fluorine-19 is NMR-active with a spin of 1/2+, so it is used in fluorine-19 NMR spectroscopy.

Fluorine-20

Fluorine-20 is an unstable isotope of fluorine. It has a half-life of and decays via beta decay with a decay energy of 7.025 MeV (exceptionally high for beta decay) to the stable nuclide Ne. Its specific radioactivity is and has a mean lifetime of .

Fluorine-21

Fluorine-21, as with fluorine-20, is also an unstable isotope of fluorine. It has a half-life of . It undergoes beta decay as well, decaying to Ne, which is a stable nuclide. Its specific activity is .

Isomers

Only two nuclear isomers (long-lived excited nuclear states), fluorine-18m and fluorine-26m, have been characterized.Template:NUBASE2020 The half-life of F before it undergoes isomeric transition is .Template:NUBASE2020 This is less than the decay half-life of any of the fluorine radioisotope nuclear ground states except for mass numbers 14–16, 28, and 31. Template:NUBASE2016 The half-life of F is ; it decays mainly to its ground state of F or (rarely, via beta-minus decay) to one of high excited states of Ne with delayed neutron emission.Template:NUBASE2020

See also

Daughter products other than fluorine

• Isotopes of neon
• Isotopes of oxygen