Isotopes of samarium

Naturally occurring samarium (Sm) is composed of 4 stable isotopes, ¹⁴⁴Sm, ¹⁵⁰Sm, ¹⁵²Sm and ¹⁵⁴Sm, and 3 extremely long-lived radioisotopes, ¹⁴⁷Sm (1.06e|11y), ¹⁴⁸Sm (7e|15y) and ¹⁴⁹Sm (>2e|15y), with ¹⁵²Sm being the most abundant (26.75% natural abundance). ¹⁴⁶Sm is also fairly long-lived (10⁸y), but occurs naturally as only the tiniest trace remains from its original supernova nucleosynthesis. [cite journal | title = Separation of samarium and neodymium: a prerequisite for getting signals from nuclear synthesis | author = Samir Maji et al. | journal = Analyst | volume = 131 | pages = 1332–1334 | year = 2006 | doi = 10.1039/b608157f]

¹⁵¹Sm has a half-life of 90 years, and ¹⁴⁵Sm has a half-life of 340 days. All of the remaining radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than 2 days, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 48 seconds. This element also has 5 meta states with the most stable being ^141mSm (t_½ 22.6 minutes), ^143m1Sm (t_½ 66 seconds) and ^139mSm (t_½ 10.7 seconds).

The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, ¹⁵²Sm, is electron capture, and the primary mode after is beta minus decay. The primary decay products before ¹⁵²Sm are element Pm (promethium) isotopes, and the primary products after are element Eu (europium) isotopes.

Isotopes of samarium are used in samarium-neodymium dating for determining the age relationships of rocks and meteorites.

Standard atomic mass: 150.36(2) u

Table

Notes

* Geologically exceptional samples are known in which the isotopic composition lies outside the reported range. The uncertainty in the atomic mass may exceed the stated value for such specimens.
* Values marked # are not purely derived from experimental data, but at least partly from systematic trends. Spins with weak assignment arguments are enclosed in parentheses.
* Uncertainties are given in concise form in parentheses after the corresponding last digits. Uncertainty values denote one standard deviation, except isotopic composition and standard atomic mass from IUPAC which use expanded uncertainties.

References

* Isotope masses from [http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/amdc/index.html Ame2003 Atomic Mass Evaluation] by G. Audi, A.H. Wapstra, C. Thibault, J. Blachot and O. Bersillon in "Nuclear Physics" A729 (2003).
* Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from [http://www.iupac.org/publications/pac/2003/7506/7506x0683.html Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report)] . "Pure Appl. Chem." Vol. 75, No. 6, pp. 683-800, (2003) and [http://www.iupac.org/news/archives/2005/atomic-weights_revised05.html Atomic Weights Revised (2005)] .
* Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from these sources. Editing notes on this article's talk page.
** Audi, Bersillon, Blachot, Wapstra. [http://amdc.in2p3.fr/web/nubase_en.html The Nubase2003 evaluation of nuclear and decay properties] , Nuc. Phys. A 729, pp. 3-128 (2003).
** National Nuclear Data Center, Brookhaven National Laboratory. Information extracted from the [http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/nudat2/ NuDat 2.1 database] (retrieved Sept. 2005).
** David R. Lide (ed.), Norman E. Holden in "CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 85th Edition", online version. CRC Press. Boca Raton, Florida (2005). Section 11, Table of the Isotopes.