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Carbon-14, C-14, 14 C or radiocarbon, is a radioactive isotope of carbon with an atomic nucleus containing 6 protons and 8 neutrons. Its presence in organic matter is the basis of the radiocarbon dating method pioneered by Willard Libby and colleagues (1949) to date archaeological, geological and hydrogeological samples.
Carbon (6 C) has 14 known isotopes, from 8 C to 20 C as well as 22 C, of which 12 C and 13 C are stable. The longest-lived radioisotope is 14 C, with a half-life of 5.70(3) × 10 3 years. This is also the only carbon radioisotope found in nature, as trace quantities are formed cosmogenically by the reaction 14 N + n → 14 C + 1 H. The most ...
A table or chart of nuclides is a two-dimensional graph of isotopes of the elements, in which one axis represents the number of neutrons (symbol N) and the other represents the number of protons (atomic number, symbol Z) in the atomic nucleus. Each point plotted on the graph thus represents a nuclide of a known or hypothetical chemical element.
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon. The method was developed in the late 1940s at the University of Chicago by Willard Libby.
At least 3,300 nuclides have been experimentally characterized [1] (see List of radioactive nuclides by half-life for the nuclides with decay half-lives less than one hour). A nuclide is defined conventionally as an experimentally examined bound collection of protons and neutrons that either is stable or has an observed decay mode .
The rules of radioactive decay may be used to convert activity to an actual number of atoms. They state that 1 Ci of radioactive atoms would follow the expression N (atoms) × λ (s −1) = 1 Ci = 3.7 × 10 10 Bq, and so N = 3.7 × 10 10 Bq / λ, where λ is the decay constant in s −1. Here are some examples, ordered by half-life:
Carbon-14 is formed in upper layers of the troposphere and the stratosphere at altitudes of 9–15 km by a reaction that is precipitated by cosmic rays. [66] Thermal neutrons are produced that collide with the nuclei of nitrogen-14, forming carbon-14 and a proton. As such, 1.5% × 10 −10 of atmospheric carbon dioxide contains carbon-14. [67]
[14] List of the elements are available by name, atomic number, density, melting point, boiling point and chemical symbol, as well as ionization energy. The nuclides of stable and radioactive elements are also available as a list of nuclides, sorted by length of half-life for those that are unstable. One of the most convenient, and certainly ...