Nitrogen-12

Properties and data of the isotope ¹²N.

Content

General Data

Radioactive Decay

NMR Data

Isotones und Isobares

Literature

Nitrogen-12 is a radioisotope of the chemical element nitrogen, which, in addition to the element-specific 7 protons, has 5 neutrons in the atomic nucleus, resulting in the mass number 12. The very short-lived, unstable and therefore radioactive nuclide, which can only be produced artificially, has no practical significance; The study of ¹²N serves exclusively academic purposes.

General data

Name of the isotope:Nitrogen-12; N-12Symbol:¹²N or 127NMass number A:12 (= number of nucleons)Atomic number Z:7 (= number of protons)Neutrons N:5Isotopic mass:12.0186132(11) u (atomic weight of Nitrogen-12)Nuclide mass:12.0147732 u (calculated nuclear mass without electrons)Mass excess:17.33808 MeVMass defect:0.079486604 u (per nucleus)Nuclear binding energy:74.04129471 MeV (per nucleus)
6.17010789 MeV (average binding energy per nucleon)Separation energy:S_N = 15.099(5) MeV (first neutron)
S_P = 0.6003(10) MeV (first proton)Half-life:11.000(16) msDecay constant λ:63.013380050904 s^-1Specific activity α:3.162295422727 × 10⁺²⁴ Bq g^-1
85467443857495 Ci g^-1Spin and parity:
(nuclear angular momentum)1+Isobaric spin: 1Magnetic dipole moment:μ(μ_N) = + 0.4571(1)Mirror nucleus:Boron-12Year of discovery:1949

Radioactive Decay

Half-life T_½ = 11.000(16) ms respectively 1.100 × 10^-2 seconds s.

Decay mode	Daughter	Probability	Decay energy	γ energy (intensity)
β⁺	¹²C	98.07 %	17.3381(10) MeV
β⁺, α	⁸Be	1.93(4) %

NMR data

Nuclear magnetic properties of the NMR active Nuclide ¹²N

Isotope:¹²N-NMRQuantity:Does not occur in nature!Spin:1+Nuclearmagnetic moment
μ/μ_N:+ 0.4571(1)Nuclear g-factor:g_l = 0.4571Quadrupole moment Q:+0.0098(9) barn (100 fm²)Line width parameter (factor):l = 4.8 fm⁴

Isotones and Isobars

The following table shows the atomic nuclei that are isotonic (same neutron number N = 5) and isobaric (same nucleon number A = 12) with Nitrogen-12. Naturally occurring isotopes are marked in green; light green = naturally occurring radionuclides.

OZ	Isotone N = 5	Isobar A = 12
1	⁶H
2	⁷He
3	⁸Li	¹²Li
4	⁹Be	¹²Be
5	¹⁰B	¹²B
6	¹¹C	¹²C
7	¹²N	¹²N
8	¹³O	¹²O
9	¹⁴F
10	¹⁵Ne

External data and identifiers

Adopted Levels, Gammas:NuDat 12N

Literature and References

[1] - K. A. Chipps, S. D. Pain, U. Greife et al.:
Particle decay of proton-unbound levels in ¹²N.
In: Physical Review C, 95, 044319, (2017), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevC.95.044319.

[2] - A. S. Demyanova et al.:
States of the ¹²N Nucleus with Increased Radii.
In: JETP Letters, 111, 409-415, (2020), DOI 10.1134/S0021364020080020.