Carbon-16

Properties and data of the isotope ¹⁶C.

Contents

General Data

Radioactive Decay

Parent Nuclides

Isotones und Isobares

Literature

Carbon-16 is a radioisotope of the chemical element carbon, which has 10 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 6 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 16. The very short-lived, only artificially produced, unstable and thus radioactive nuclide has no practical significance; the study of ¹⁶C is exclusively for academic purposes.

The report on the discovery of the radioactive isotope was published in 1961: According to it, carbon-16 was produced by bombarding carbon-14 with tritons (16 MeV tritium nuclei, hydrogen-3) [1]:

¹⁴C(t,p)¹⁶C.

See also: List of individual Carbon isotopes (and general data sources).

General data

Name of the isotope:Carbon-16; C-16Symbol:¹⁶C or 166CMass number A:16 (= number of nucleons)Atomic number Z:6 (= number of protons)Neutrons N:10Isotopic mass:16.014701(4) u (atomic weight of Carbon-16)Nuclide mass:16.0114095 u (calculated nuclear mass without electrons)Mass excess:13.69389 MeVMass defect:0.118898352 u (per nucleus)Nuclear binding energy:110.7531015 MeV (per nucleus)
6.92206884 MeV (average binding energy per nucleon)Separation energy:S_N = 4.250(4) MeV (first neutron)
S_P = 22.553(21) MeV (first proton)Half-life:0.750(6) sDecay constant λ:0.92419624074659 s^-1Specific activity α:3.47852496 × 10⁺²² Bq g^-1
940141882432.43 Ci g^-1Spin and parity:
(nuclear angular momentum)0+Isobaric spin: 2Quadrupole moment Q:-0.018(2) barn (100 fm²)Charge radius:2.584 femtometer fmMatter radius:2.881 femtometer fmMirror nucleus:Neon-16Year of discovery:1961

Radioactive Decay

Half-life T_½ = 0.750(6) s respectively 7.50 × 10^-1 seconds s.

Decay mode	Daughter	Probability	Decay energy	γ energy (intensity)
β^-	¹⁶N	1.0(3) %	8.010(4) MeV	0.12042(12) MeV [0.67(10) %]
β^-, n	¹⁵N	99.0(3) %	5.521(4) MeV

Parent Nuclides

Direct parent isotope is: ¹⁷B.

Isotones and Isobars

The following table shows the atomic nuclei that are isotonic (same neutron number N = 10) and isobaric (same nucleon number A = 16) with Carbon-16. Naturally occurring isotopes are marked in green; light green = naturally occurring radionuclides.

Z	Isotone N = 10	Isobar A = 16
3	¹³Li
4	¹⁴Be	¹⁶Be
5	¹⁵B	¹⁶B
6	¹⁶C	¹⁶C
7	¹⁷N	¹⁶N
8	¹⁸O	¹⁶O
9	¹⁹F	¹⁶F
10	²⁰Ne	¹⁶Ne
11	²¹Na
12	²²Mg
13	²³Al
14	²⁴Si
15	²⁵P
16	²⁶S

External data and identifiers

Adopted Levels, Gammas:NuDat 16C

Literature and References

[1] - S. Hinds, R. Middleton, A. E. Litherland, D. J. Pullen:
New Isotope of Carbon: ¹⁶C.
In: Physical Review Letters, 6, 113, (1961), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.6.113.