Natural iron (26Fe) consists of four stable isotopes: 5.85% 54Fe, 91.75% 56Fe, 2.12% 57Fe and 0.28% 58Fe. There are 28 known radioisotopes and 8 nuclear isomers, the most stable of which are 60Fe (half-life 2.62 million years) and 55Fe (half-life 2.7562 years). Much of the past work on measuring the isotopic composition of iron has centered on determining 60Fe variations due to processes accompanying nucleosynthesis (e.g., meteorite studies) and ore formation. In the last decade however, advances in mass spectrometry technology have allowed the detection and quantification of minute, naturally occurring variations in the ratios of the stable isotopes of iron. Much of this work has been driven by the Earth and planetary science communities, though applications to biological and industrial systems are beginning to emerge.
List of isotopes
Iron-56
56Fe is the most abundant isotope of iron. It is also the isotope with the lowest mass per nucleon, 930.412 MeV/c2, though not the isotope with the highest nuclear binding energy per nucleon, which is nickel-62. However, because of the details of how nucleosynthesis works, 56Fe is a more common endpoint of fusion inside supernovae, where it is mostly produced as 56Ni, which subsequently decays to 56Co and then iron. Thus, 56Fe is more common in the universe, relative to other heavy elements, including 62Ni, 58Fe, and 60Ni, all of which have a comparably high binding energy.
Iron-57 57Fe is widely used in Mössbauer spectroscopy and the related nuclear resonance vibrational spectroscopy due to the low natural variation in energy of the 14.4 keV nuclear transition. The transition was famously used to make the first definitive measurement of gravitational redshift, in the 1960 Pound–Rebka experiment.
Iron-60 Iron-60 has a half-life of 2.62 million years, but was thought until 2009 to have a half-life of 1.5 million years. It undergoes beta decay to 60Co, which then decays with the much shorter half-life of about 5 years to stable 60Ni. In phases of the meteorites Semarkona and Chervony Kut, a correlation between the excess concentration of 60Ni, the granddaughter isotope of 60Fe, and the abundance of the stable iron isotopes could be found, which is evidence for the existence of 60Fe at the time of formation of the Solar System. Depending on its original abundance, the energy from the decay of 60Fe may have been significant, along with that of 26Al, to the remelting and differentiation of asteroids and planetesimals after their formation. These nickel abundances in extraterrestrial materials may also provide further insight into the origin of the Solar System and its early history. Live (interstellar) iron-60 was first identified in deep sea sediments in 1999. These are deep sea ferromanganese crusts, which are constantly growing, aggregating iron, manganese, and other elements. Iron-60 has been found in fossilized bacteria in sea floor sediments. In 2019, researchers found 60Fe in Antarctica. Iron-60 shows two peaks in deep sea sediments, the first 1.7–3.2 million years ago and the second 6.5–8.7 million years ago. The peaks are related to the passage of the Solar System through the Local Bubble and likely the Orion–Eridanus Superbubble. These superbubbles were created by multiple supernovae. Traces of iron-60 have also been found in lunar samples. The distance to the supernova of origin can be estimated by relating the amount of iron-60 intercepted as Earth passes through the expanding supernova ejecta. Assuming that the material ejected in a supernova expands uniformly out from its origin as a sphere with surface area 4πr2. The fraction of the material intercepted by the Earth is dependent on its cross-sectional area (πR 2Earth ) as it passes through the expanding debris:
M Fraction intercepted = π R Earth 2 4 π r 2 M e j {\displaystyle M_{\text{Fraction intercepted }}={\frac {\pi R_{\text{Earth }}^{2}}{4\pi r^{2}}}M_{ej}}
where Mej is the mass of ejected material. Assuming the intercepted material is distributed uniformly across the surface of the Earth (4πR 2Earth ), the mass surface density (Σej) of the supernova ejecta on Earth is:
Σ e j = M Fraction intercepted A surface,Earth = M e j 16 π r 2 {\displaystyle \Sigma _{ej}={\frac {M_{\text{Fraction intercepted }}}{A_{\text{surface,Earth }}}}={\frac {M_{ej}}{16\pi r^{2}}}}
The number of 60Fe atoms per unit area found on Earth can be estimated if the typical amount of 60Fe ejected from a supernova is known. This can be done by dividing the surface mass density (Σej) by the atomic mass of 60Fe.
… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.
