Magnesium-40 is a radioisotope of the chemical element magnesium, which has 28 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 12 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 40. The very short-lived, only artificially produced, unstable and thus radioactive nuclide has no practical significance; the study of 40Mg is exclusively for academic purposes.
The first observation of the extremely neutron-rich nuclide during irradiation of a natural tungsten template with calcium-48 ions (141 MeV/nucleon) was reported in 2007 [1].
See also: list of Magnesium isotopes.
Half-life T½ = > 170 ns respectively 1.70 × 10-7 seconds s.
Decay mode | Daughter | Probability | Decay energy | γ energy (intensity) |
---|---|---|---|---|
β- ? | 40Al | 100 % | 20.730(580) MeV | |
β-, n | 39Al | ? | 19.989(583) MeV | |
β-, 2n | 38Al | ? |
Z | Isotone N = 28 | Isobar A = 40 |
---|---|---|
11 | 39Na | |
12 | 40Mg | 40Mg |
13 | 41Al | 40Al |
14 | 42Si | 40Si |
15 | 43P | 40P |
16 | 44S | 40S |
17 | 45Cl | 40Cl |
18 | 46Ar | 40Ar |
19 | 47K | 40K |
20 | 48Ca | 40Ca |
21 | 49Sc | 40Sc |
22 | 50Ti | 40Ti |
23 | 51V | 40V |
24 | 52Cr | |
25 | 53Mn | |
26 | 54Fe | |
27 | 55Co | |
28 | 56Ni | |
29 | 57Cu | |
30 | 58Zn | |
31 | 59Ga | |
32 | 60Ge |
[1] - T. Baumann, A. M. Amthor, D. Bazin et al.:
Discovery of 40Mg and 42Al suggests neutron drip-line slant towards heavier isotopes.
In: Nature, 449, (2007), DOI 10.1038/nature06213.
[2] - H. L. Crawford et al.:
First Spectroscopy of the Near Drip-line Nucleus 40Mg.
In: Physical Review Letters, 122, 052501, (2019), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevLett.122.052501.
Last update: 2024-11-04
Perma link: https://www.chemlin.org/isotope/magnesium-40
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