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The island of stability is a hypothetical region in the top right cluster of nuclides that contains isotopes far more stable than other transuranic elements. There are no stable nuclides having an equal number of protons and neutrons in their nuclei with atomic number greater than 20 (i.e. calcium) as can be readily observed from the chart ...
These 35 radioactive naturally occurring nuclides comprise the radioactive primordial nuclides. The total number of primordial nuclides is then 251 (the stable nuclides) plus the 35 radioactive primordial nuclides, for a total of 286 primordial nuclides. This number is subject to change if new shorter-lived primordials are identified on Earth.
The number of protons (Z column) and number of neutrons (N column). energy column The column labeled "energy" denotes the energy equivalent of the mass of a neutron minus the mass per nucleon of this nuclide (so all nuclides get a positive value) in MeV, formally: m n − m nuclide / A, where A = Z + N is the mass number. Note that this means ...
A set of nuclides with equal proton number (atomic number), i.e., of the same chemical element but different neutron numbers, are called isotopes of the element. Particular nuclides are still often loosely called "isotopes", but the term "nuclide" is the correct one in general (i.e., when Z is not fixed).
These nuclides lie at the very bottom of the valley of stability. From this bottom, the average binding energy per nucleon slowly decreases with increasing atomic mass number. The heavy nuclide 238 U is not stable, but is slow to decay with a half-life of 4.5 billion years. [1] It has relatively small binding energy per nucleon.
Stable even–even nuclides number as many as three isobars for some mass numbers, and up to seven isotopes for some atomic numbers. Conversely, of the 251 known stable nuclides, only five have both an odd number of protons and odd number of neutrons: hydrogen-2 ( deuterium ), lithium-6 , boron-10 , nitrogen-14 , and tantalum-180m .
Only nuclides are considered to decay and produce radioactivity. [55]: 568 Nuclides can be stable or unstable. Unstable nuclides decay, possibly in several steps, until they become stable. There are 256 known stable nuclides. The number of unstable nuclides discovered has grown, with about 3000 known in 2006. [55]
Proton number Z, also named the atomic number, determines the position of an element in the periodic table. The approximately 3300 known nuclides [7] are commonly represented in a chart with Z and N for its axes and the half-life for radioactive decay indicated for each unstable nuclide (see figure). [8]