Isotopes of actinium

Actinium (₈₉Ac) has no stable isotopes and no characteristic terrestrial isotopic composition, thus a standard atomic weight cannot be given. There are 34 known isotopes, from ²⁰³Ac to ²³⁶Ac, and 7 isomers. Three isotopes are found in nature, ²²⁵Ac, ²²⁷Ac and ²²⁸Ac, as intermediate decay products of, respectively, ²³⁷Np, ²³⁵U, and ²³²Th. ²²⁸Ac and ²²⁵Ac are extremely rare, so almost all natural actinium is ²²⁷Ac.

The most stable isotopes are ²²⁷Ac with a half-life of 21.772 years, ²²⁵Ac with a half-life of 10.0 days, and ²²⁶Ac with a half-life of 29.37 hours. All other isotopes have half-lives under 10 hours, and most under a minute. The shortest-lived known isotope is ²¹⁷Ac with a half-life of 69 ns.

Purified ²²⁷Ac comes into equilibrium with its decay products (²²⁷Th and ²²³Fr) after 185 days.