Naturally occurring neodymium (60Nd) is composed of five stable isotopes, 142Nd, 143Nd, 145Nd, 146Nd and 148Nd, with 142Nd being the most abundant (27.2% natural abundance), and two long-lived radioisotopes, 144Nd and 150Nd. In all, 35 radioisotopes of neodymium have been characterized up to now, with the most stable being naturally occurring isotopes 144Nd (alpha decay, a half-life (t1/2) of 2.29×1015 years) and 150Nd (double beta decay, t1/2 of 9.3×1018 years), and for practical purposes they can be considered to be stable as well. The radioactivity of 144Nd is due to it having 84 neutrons (two more than 82, which is a magic number corresponding to a stable neutron configuration), and so it may emit an alpha particle (which has 2 neutrons) to form cerium-140 with 82 neutrons. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 11 days, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 70 seconds. The most stable artificial isotope is 147Nd, the parent of promethium, with a half-life of 10.98 days. This element also has 15 known meta states with the most stable being 139mNd (t1/2 5.5 hours), 135mNd (t1/2 5.5 minutes) and 133m1Nd (t1/2 ~70 seconds). The primary decay modes for isotopes lighter than the lightest and most abundant stable isotope, which is also the only theoretically stable isotope, 142Nd, are electron capture and positron decay, and the primary mode for heavier radioisotopes is beta decay. The primary decay products for lighter radioisotopes are praseodymium isotopes and the primary products for heavier ones are promethium isotopes.
Neodymium isotopes as fission products Neodymium is one of the more common fission products that results from the splitting of uranium-233, uranium-235, plutonium-239 and plutonium-241. The distribution of resulting neodymium isotopes is distinctly different than those found in crustal rock formation on Earth. One of the methods used to verify that the Oklo Fossil Reactors in Gabon had produced a natural nuclear fission reactor some two billion years before present was to compare the relative abundances of neodymium isotopes found at the reactor site with those found elsewhere on Earth.
List of isotopes
See also Daughter products other than neodymium
Isotopes of samarium Isotopes of promethium Isotopes of praseodymium Isotopes of cerium
References
Isotope masses from: Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001 Isotopic compositions and standard atomic masses from: 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. Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001 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.
