Oxygen-12 is a radioisotope of the chemical element oxygen, which has 4 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 8 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 12. The very short-lived, only artificially produced, unstable and thus radioactive nuclide has no practical significance; the study of 12O is exclusively for academic purposes.
The discovery of the proton-rich isotope was first reported in 1978. According to this, oxygen-12 was formed as a product of the irradiation of oxygen-16 with α-particles (helium-4 nuclei) accelerated to 117 MeV, according to the following transfer reaction [1]:
16O(4He,8He)12O.
See also: list of Oxygen isotopes.
Half-life T½ = 8.9(33) zs respectively 8.9 × 10-21 seconds s.
Decay mode | Daughter | Probability | Decay energy | γ energy (intensity) |
---|---|---|---|---|
2p | 10C | 14.675(12) MeV |
Z | Isotone N = 4 | Isobar A = 12 |
---|---|---|
1 | 5H | |
2 | 6He | |
3 | 7Li | 12Li |
4 | 8Be | 12Be |
5 | 9B | 12B |
6 | 10C | 12C |
7 | 11N | 12N |
8 | 12O | 12O |
9 | 13F |
[1] - G. J. KeKelis, M. S. Zisman, D. K. Scott et al.:
Masses of the unbound nuclei 16Ne, 15F, and 12O.
In: Physical Review C, 17, 1929, (1978), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevC.17.1929.
Last update: 2024-10-03
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