Isotopes of thallium

Thallium (81Tl) has 41 isotopes with atomic masses that range from 176 to 216. 203Tl and 205Tl are the only stable isotopes and 204Tl is the most stable radioisotope with a half-life of 3.78 years. 207Tl, with a half-life of 4.77 minutes, has the longest half-life of naturally occurring Tl radioisotopes. All isotopes of thallium are either radioactive or observationally stable, meaning that they are predicted to be radioactive but no actual decay has been observed.

Isotopes of thallium (81Tl)
Main isotopes Decay
abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct
201Tl synth 3.0421 d ε 201Hg
203Tl 29.5% stable
204Tl synth 3.78 y β 204Pb
ε + β+ 204Hg
205Tl 70.5% stable
Standard atomic weight Ar°(Tl)
  • [204.382, 204.385]
  • 204.38±0.01 (abridged)

Thallium-202 (half-life 12.23 days) can be made in a cyclotron while thallium-204 (half-life 3.78 years) is made by the neutron activation of stable thallium in a nuclear reactor.

In the fully ionized state, the isotope 205Tl becomes beta-radioactive, decaying to 205Pb, but 203Tl remains stable.

205Tl is the decay product of bismuth-209, an isotope that was once thought to be stable but is now known to undergo alpha decay with an extremely long half-life of 2.01×1019 y. 205Tl is at the end of the neptunium series decay chain.

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