Naturally occurring nickel (Ni) is composed of 5 stable isotopes; 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni with 58Ni being the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance). 18 radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being 59Ni with a half-life of 76,000 years, 63Ni with a half-life of 100.1 years, and 56Ni with a half-life of 6.077 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 60 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 30 seconds. This element also has 1 meta state.
Nickel-56 is produced in large quantities in type Ia supernovae and the shape of the light curve of these supernovae corresponds to the decay of nickel-56 to cobalt-56 and then to iron-56.
Nickel-59 is a long-lived cosmogenic radionuclide with a half-life of 76,000 years. 59Ni has found many applications in isotope geology. 59Ni has been used to date the terrestrial age of meteorites and to determine abundances of extraterrestrial dust in ice and sediment. Nickel-60 is the daughter product of the extinct radionuclide 60Fe (half-life = 1.5 Myr). Because the extinct radionuclide 60Fe had such a long half-life, its persistence in materials in the solar system at high enough concentrations may have generated observable variations in the isotopic composition of 60Ni. Therefore, the abundance of 60Ni present in extraterrestrial material may provide insight into the origin of the solar system and its early history/very early history.
Nickel-62 has the highest binding energy per nucleon of any isotope for any element, when including the electron shell in the calculation. More energy is released forming this isotope than any other, although fusion can form heavier isotopes. For instance 2 Ca-40's can fuse to a Kr-80 plus 4 electrons liberating 77 KeV per nucleon, but reactions leading to the Iron/Nickel region are more probable as they release more energy per baryon.
Nickel-48, discovered in 1999, is the most proton-rich nickel isotope known . With 28 protons and 20 neutrons 48Ni is "doubly magic" (like 208Pb) and therefore unusually stable [1].
The isotopes of nickel range in atomic weight from 48 u (48-Ni) to 78 u (78-Ni). Nickel-78's half-life was recently measured to be 110 milliseconds and is believed to be an important isotope involved in supernova nucleosynthesis of elements heavier than iron. [1]
Standard atomic mass: 58.6934(2) u
Contents |
| nuclide symbol |
Z(p) | N(n) | isotopic mass (u) |
half-life | nuclear spin |
representative isotopic composition (mole fraction) |
range of natural variation (mole fraction) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| excitation energy | |||||||
| 48Ni | 28 | 20 | 48.01975(54)# | 10# ms [>500 ns] | 0+ | ||
| 49Ni | 28 | 21 | 49.00966(43)# | 13(4) ms [12(+5-3) ms] | 7/2-# | ||
| 50Ni | 28 | 22 | 49.99593(28)# | 9.1(18) ms | 0+ | ||
| 51Ni | 28 | 23 | 50.98772(28)# | 30# ms [>200 ns] | 7/2-# | ||
| 52Ni | 28 | 24 | 51.97568(9)# | 38(5) ms | 0+ | ||
| 53Ni | 28 | 25 | 52.96847(17)# | 45(15) ms | (7/2-)# | ||
| 54Ni | 28 | 26 | 53.95791(5) | 104(7) ms | 0+ | ||
| 55Ni | 28 | 27 | 54.951330(12) | 204.7(17) ms | 7/2- | ||
| 56Ni | 28 | 28 | 55.942132(12) | 6.075(10) d | 0+ | ||
| 57Ni | 28 | 29 | 56.9397935(19) | 35.60(6) h | 3/2- | ||
| 58Ni | 28 | 30 | 57.9353429(7) | STABLE [>700E+18 a] | 0+ | 0.680769(89) | |
| 59Ni | 28 | 31 | 58.9343467(7) | 7.6(5)E+4 a | 3/2- | ||
| 60Ni | 28 | 32 | 59.9307864(7) | STABLE | 0+ | 0.262231(77) | |
| 61Ni | 28 | 33 | 60.9310560(7) | STABLE | 3/2- | 0.011399(6) | |
| 62Ni | 28 | 34 | 61.9283451(6) | STABLE | 0+ | 0.036345(17) | |
| 63Ni | 28 | 35 | 62.9296694(6) | 100.1(20) a | 1/2- | ||
| 63mNi | 87.15(11) keV | 1.67(3) µs | 5/2- | ||||
| 64Ni | 28 | 36 | 63.9279660(7) | STABLE | 0+ | 0.009256(9) | |
| 65Ni | 28 | 37 | 64.9300843(7) | 2.5172(3) h | 5/2- | ||
| 65mNi | 63.37(5) keV | 69(3) µs | 1/2- | ||||
| 66Ni | 28 | 38 | 65.9291393(15) | 54.6(3) h | 0+ | ||
| 67Ni | 28 | 39 | 66.931569(3) | 21(1) s | 1/2- | ||
| 67mNi | 1007(3) keV | 13.3(2) µs | 9/2+ | ||||
| 68Ni | 28 | 40 | 67.931869(3) | 29(2) s | 0+ | ||
| 68m1Ni | 1770.0(10) keV | 276(65) ns | 0+ | ||||
| 68m2Ni | 2849.1(3) keV | 860(50) µs | 5- | ||||
| 69Ni | 28 | 41 | 68.935610(4) | 11.5(3) s | 9/2+ | ||
| 69m1Ni | 321(2) keV | 3.5(4) s | (1/2-) | ||||
| 69m2Ni | 2701(10) keV | 439(3) ns | (17/2-) | ||||
| 70Ni | 28 | 42 | 69.93650(37) | 6.0(3) s | 0+ | ||
| 70mNi | 2860(2) keV | 232(1) ns | 8+ | ||||
| 71Ni | 28 | 43 | 70.94074(40) | 2.56(3) s | 1/2-# | ||
| 72Ni | 28 | 44 | 71.94209(47) | 1.57(5) s | 0+ | ||
| 73Ni | 28 | 45 | 72.94647(32)# | 0.84(3) s | (9/2+) | ||
| 74Ni | 28 | 46 | 73.94807(43)# | 0.68(18) s | 0+ | ||
| 75Ni | 28 | 47 | 74.95287(43)# | 0.6(2) s | (7/2+)# | ||
| 76Ni | 28 | 48 | 75.95533(97)# | 470(390) ms [0.24(+55-24) s] | 0+ | ||
| 77Ni | 28 | 49 | 76.96055(54)# | 300# ms [>300 ns] | 9/2+# | ||
| 78Ni | 28 | 50 | 77.96318(118)# | 120# ms [>300 ns] | 0+ | ||
| Isotopes of cobalt | Isotopes of nickel | Isotopes of copper |
| Index to isotope pages · Table of nuclides | ||