Isotopes of lead

Lead (Pb) has four stable isotopes - ²⁰⁴Pb, ²⁰⁶Pb, ²⁰⁷Pb, ²⁰⁸Pb and one common radiogenic isotope ²⁰²Pb with a half-life of ~53,000 years. The Standard atomic mass is 207.2(1) u. It is the heaviest discovered element to have a stable isotope. (The more massive ²⁰⁹Bi, long considered to be stable, actually has a half-life of 1.9×10¹⁹ years)

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Isotopes of lead occurring within the radioactive disintegration chains of actinium, radium and thorium were known as:

• radium G : ²⁰⁶Pb
• actinium D : ²⁰⁷Pb
• thorium D : ²⁰⁸Pb
• radium D, radio-lead or radiolead : ²¹⁰Pb
• actinium B : ²¹¹Pb
• thorium B : ²¹²Pb
• radium B : ²¹⁴Pb

Table

Notes

• Evaluated isotopic composition is for most but not all commercial samples.
• The precision of the isotope abundances and atomic mass is limited through variations. The given ranges should be applicable to any normal terrestrial material.
• 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 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 Atomic weights of the elements. Review 2000 (IUPAC Technical Report). Pure Appl. Chem. Vol. 75, No. 6, pp. 683-800, (2003) and 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. 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 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.