Cerium-143

Properties and data of the isotope ¹⁴³Ce.

Contents

General Data

Radioactive Decay

Parent Nuclides

Isotones und Isobares

Literature

Cerium-143 is a radioisotope of the chemical element cerium, which has 85 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 58 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 143. The very short-lived, only artificially produced, unstable and thus radioactive nuclide has no practical significance; the study of ¹⁴³Ce is exclusively for academic purposes.

Cerium-143 was first observed in 1948 during experiments on the activation of cerium. The target material consisted of stable cerium-142, which was irradiated with both 10 MeV deuterons (hydrogen-2 nuclei) and neutrons. The decay activity of the resulting product was determined by subtracting the known long-term activity of cerium-141 from the total activity. A 1.4-day activity could be clearly assigned to the reaction ¹⁴²Ce(d,p)¹⁴³Ce, since it did not occur during comparative bombardment of barium with α-particles [1].

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

General data

Name of the isotope:Cerium-143; Ce-143Symbol:¹⁴³Ce or 14358CeMass number A:143 (= number of nucleons)Atomic number Z:58 (= number of protons)Neutrons N:85Nucleon pairing (Z - N):even - oddNuclear ratio (N/Z ratio):1.4655172413793 (= neutron-proton ratio)Neutron excess (N-Z):27Isotopic mass:142.9123920(26) u (atomic weight of Cerium-143)Nuclide mass:142.8805766 u (calculated nuclear mass without electrons)Mass excess:-81.60633 MeVMass defect:1.277977716 u (per nucleus)Nuclear binding energy:1190.42857459 MeV (per nucleus)
8.32467535 MeV (average binding energy per nucleon)Separation energy:S_N = 5.14480(9) MeV (first neutron)
S_P = 8.871(6) MeV (first proton)Half-life:33.039(6) hDecay constant λ:5.827684962888 × 10^-6 s^-1Specific activity α:2.471488713651 × 10⁺¹⁶ Bq g^-1
667969.92260849 Ci g^-1Spin and parity:
(nuclear angular momentum)3/2-Magnetic dipole moment:μ(μ_N) = 0.43(1)Nuclear g-factor:g_l = 0.28666666666667Year of discovery:1948

Radioactive Decay

Half-life T_½ = 33.039(6) h (hours) respectively 1.189404 × 10⁵ seconds s.

Decay mode	Daughter	Probability	Decay energy	γ energy (intensity)
β^-	¹⁴³Pr	100 %	1.4618(19) MeV

Parent Nuclides

Direct parent isotope is: ¹⁴³La.

Isotones and Isobars

The following table shows the atomic nuclei that are isotonic (same neutron number N = 85) and isobaric (same nucleon number A = 143) with Cerium-143. Naturally occurring isotopes are marked in green; light green = naturally occurring radionuclides.

Z	Isotone N = 85	Isobar A = 143
47	¹³²Ag
48	¹³³Cd
49	¹³⁴In
50	¹³⁵Sn
51	¹³⁶Sb
52	¹³⁷Te	¹⁴³Te
53	¹³⁸I	¹⁴³I
54	¹³⁹Xe	¹⁴³Xe
55	¹⁴⁰Cs	¹⁴³Cs
56	¹⁴¹Ba	¹⁴³Ba
57	¹⁴²La	¹⁴³La
58	¹⁴³Ce	¹⁴³Ce
59	¹⁴⁴Pr	¹⁴³Pr
60	¹⁴⁵Nd	¹⁴³Nd
61	¹⁴⁶Pm	¹⁴³Pm
62	¹⁴⁷Sm	¹⁴³Sm
63	¹⁴⁸Eu	¹⁴³Eu
64	¹⁴⁹Gd	¹⁴³Gd
65	¹⁵⁰Tb	¹⁴³Tb
66	¹⁵¹Dy	¹⁴³Dy
67	¹⁵²Ho	¹⁴³Ho
68	¹⁵³Er	¹⁴³Er
69	¹⁵⁴Tm
70	¹⁵⁵Yb
71	¹⁵⁶Lu
72	¹⁵⁷Hf
73	¹⁵⁸Ta
74	¹⁵⁹W
75	¹⁶⁰Re
76	¹⁶¹Os