Table of nuclides

A chart of nuclides (cut into three parts for better presentation).

A table of nuclides or chart of nuclides is a two-dimensional graph in which one axis represents the number of neutrons and the other represents the number of protons in an atomic nucleus. Each point plotted on the graph thus represents the nuclide of a real or hypothetical chemical element. This system of ordering nuclides can offer a greater insight into the characteristics of isotopes than the better-known periodic table, which shows only elements instead of each of their isotopes.

Description and utility

A chart or table of nuclides (capitalization optional) is a simple map to the nuclear, or radioactive, behaviour of nuclides, as it distinguishes the isotopes of an element. It contrasts with a periodic table, which only maps their chemical behavior, since isotopes of the same element do not differ chemically. Nuclide charts organize isotopes along the X axis by their numbers of neutrons and along the Y axis by their numbers of protons, out to the limits of the neutron and proton drip lines. This representation was first published by Giorgio Fea in 1935, and expanded by Emilio Segrè in 1945 or G. Seaborg. In 1958, Walter Seelmann-Eggebert and Gerda Pfennig published the first edition of the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart. Its 7th edition was made available in 2006. Today, one finds several nuclide charts, four of them have a wide distribution: the Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart, the Strasbourg Universal Nuclide Chart, the Chart of the Nuclides from the JAEA and the Nuclide Chart from Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory. It has become a basic tool of the nuclear community.

Trends in the Chart of Nuclides

	5	6H	7He	8Li	9Be	10B	11C	12N	13O	14F	15Ne	Na	Mg
	6	7H	8He	9Li	10Be	11B	12C	13N	14O	15F	16Ne	17Na	18Mg	13	14
		7	9He	10Li	11Be	12B	13C	14N	15O	16F	17Ne	18Na	19Mg	Al	Si
		8	10He	11Li	12Be	13B	14C	15N	16O	17F	18Ne	19Na	20Mg	21Al	22Si
			9	12Li	13Be	14B	15C	16N	17O	18F	19Ne	20Na	21Mg	22Al	23Si

• Isotopes are nuclides with the same number of protons but differing numbers of neutrons; that is, they have the same atomic number and are therefore the same chemical element. Isotopes neighbor each other vertically, e.g, carbon-12, carbon-13, carbon-14 or oxygen-15, oxygen-16, oxygen-17.
• Isotones are nuclides with the same number of neutrons but differing number of protons. Isotones neighbor each other horizontally. Example: Carbon-14, Nitrogen-15, Oxygen-16 in the sample table above.
• Isobars are nuclides with the same number of nucleons, i.e. mass number, but different numbers of protons and different number of neutrons. Isobars neighbor each other diagonally from lower-left to upper-right. Example: Carbon-14, Nitrogen-14, Oxygen-14 in the sample table above.
• Isodiaphers are nuclides with the same difference between neutrons and protons (N−Z).
• Beyond the neutron drip line along the right, nuclides decay by neutron emission.
• Beyond the proton drip line along the upper left, nuclides decay by proton emission. Drip lines have only been established for some elements.
• The island of stability is a hypothetical region of the table of nuclides that contains isotopes far more stable than other transuranic elements.
• There are no stable atoms having an equal number of protons and neutrons in their nuclei with atomic number greater than 20 as can be readily "read" from the chart. Nuclei of greater atomic number require an excess of neutrons for stability.
• There are no stable atoms having atomic number greater than Z=82 (lead). Atoms with atomic numbers of 82 and lower all have stable isotopes, with the exceptions of technetium (Z=43), promethium (Z=61) and, possibly, tungsten (Z=74).

Available representations

Charts of the nuclides

article	description
Table of nuclides (complete)	Presents the data via a single, contiguous chart that requires both vertical and horizontal scrolling to view all its contents (262 kB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (segmented, wide)	Presents the data via four separate charts, each typically with 30 elements. Depending on the browser, no horizontal scrolling is required in window widths of at least 1225 to 1440 pixels (311 kB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (segmented, narrow)	Presents the data via eight separate charts, each typically with 15 elements. Horizontal scrolling is not required for all but the smallest computer monitors (321 KB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (sorted by half-life)	Presents the data in a one-dimensional list where all nuclides are sorted by their half-life, including specific mass excess and decay-modes, no horizontal scrolling is required (95  kB total HTML download).
Table of nuclides (combined)	Provides both the eight-chart, segmented presentation and the single, contiguous chart. Provides quick-jump hyperlinks to jump between the two. Features expanded introductory text for first-time readers. (588 kB total HTML download).
File:NuclideMap.PNG	Single image (not HTML) of the National Nuclear Data Center chart from the NuDat 2 database (3.9 MB)
File:Table isotopes en.svg	Single vector image (not HTML) of the nuclides colored by decay mode (215 KB)

Articles on isotopes of an element

article	description
Index to isotope pages	A periodic table that provides links to a separate article on each element and its isotopes.
Isotope lists	A page that provides data on the isotopes of each element in groups of 24 elements.

See also

• List of nuclides. Presents information in list form, and in order of stability, for the 905 nuclides which are stable, or are radioactive with half lives greater than 60 minutes.
• List of isotopes
• Index to isotope pages
• Isotope lists
• Table of nuclides (combined)

External links

• Karlsruhe Nuclide Chart

• Interactive Chart of Nuclides (Brookhaven National Laboratory)

• The Lund/LBNL Nuclear Data Search
• Another example of a Chart of Nuclides from Korea

• YChartElements dynamic periodic table and chart of the nuclides, a Yoix application
• 

Compact Chart of Nuclides (non-standard representation with elements along a diagonal) 70x74.

• The Live Chart of Nuclides - IAEA in Java or HTML
• Map of the Nuclides
• Universal Nuclide Chart from Nucleonica
• Tendency equation and curve of stable nuclides.