Naturally occurring erbium (68Er) is composed of six stable isotopes, with 166Er being the most abundant (33.503% natural abundance). Radioisotopes have been characterized with from 145Er to 175Er, all having half-lives less than ten days: the most stable are 169Er (9.39 days), 172Er (49.3 hours), and 160Er (28.58 hours). All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 11 hours, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 4 minutes. This element also has numerous meta states, with the most stable being 149m1Er (t1/2 = 8.9 seconds). The primary decay mode before the most abundant stable isotope, 166Er, is electron capture to holmium isotopes, and the primary mode after is beta decay to thulium isotopes. All isotopes of erbium are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed.
List of isotopes
See also Daughter products other than erbium
Isotopes of thulium Isotopes of holmium Isotopes of dysprosium
References
Isotope masses from: Wang, Meng; Huang, W.J.; Kondev, F.G.; Audi, G.; Naimi, S. (2021). "The AME 2020 atomic mass evaluation (II). Tables, graphs and references*". Chinese Physics C. 45 (3) 030003. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddaf. Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from: Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3) 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae. 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. Kondev, F. G.; Wang, M.; Huang, W. J.; Naimi, S.; Audi, G. (2021). "The NUBASE2020 evaluation of nuclear properties" (PDF). Chinese Physics C. 45 (3) 030001. doi:10.1088/1674-1137/abddae. 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.