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.^[2]

Actinium-225 is a highly radioactive isotope with 136 neutrons. It is an alpha emitter and has a half-life of 9.919 days. As of 2024, it is being researched as a possible alpha source in targeted alpha therapy.^[12][13][14] Actinium-225 undergoes a series of three alpha decays – via the short-lived francium-221 and astatine-217 – to ²¹³Bi, which itself is used as an alpha source.^[15] Another benefit is that the decay chain of ²²⁵Ac ends in the nuclide ²⁰⁹Bi,^{[note 1]} which has a considerably shorter biological half-life than lead.^[16][17] However, a major factor limiting its usage is the difficulty in producing the short-lived isotope, as it is most commonly isolated from aging parent nuclides (such as ²³³U); it may also be produced in cyclotrons, linear accelerators, or fast breeder reactors.^[18]

Actinium-226 is an isotope of actinium with a half-life of 29.37 hours. It mainly (83%) undergos beta decay, sometimes (17%) undergo electron capture, and rarely (0.006%) undergo alpha decay.^[1] There are researches on ²²⁶Ac to use it in SPECT.^[19][20]

Actinium-227 is the most stable isotope of actinium, with a half-life of 21.772 years. It mainly (98.62%) undergos beta decay, but sometimes (1.38%) it will undergo alpha decay instead.^{[1] 227}Ac is a member of the actinium series. It is found only in traces in uranium ores – one tonne of uranium in ore contains about 0.2 milligrams of ²²⁷Ac.^{[21][22] 227}Ac is prepared, in milligram amounts, by the neutron irradiation of ²²⁶Ra in a nuclear reactor.^[22][23]

${\displaystyle {\ce {^{226}_{88}Ra + ^{1}_{0}n -> ^{227}_{88}Ra ->[\beta^-][42.2 \ {\ce {min}}] ^{227}_{89}Ac}}}$

²²⁷Ac is highly radioactive and was therefore studied for use as an active element of radioisotope thermoelectric generators, for example in spacecraft. The oxide of ²²⁷Ac pressed with beryllium is also an efficient neutron source with the activity exceeding that of the standard americium-beryllium and radium-beryllium pairs.^[24] In all those applications, ²²⁷Ac (a beta source) is merely a progenitor which generates alpha-emitting isotopes upon its decay. Beryllium captures alpha particles and emits neutrons owing to its large cross-section for the (α,n) nuclear reaction:

${\displaystyle {\ce {^{9}_{4}Be + ^{4}_{2}He -> ^{12}_{6}C + ^{1}_{0}n + \gamma}}}$

The ²²⁷AcBe neutron sources can be applied in a neutron probe – a standard device for measuring the quantity of water present in soil, as well as moisture/density for quality control in highway construction.^[25][26] Such probes are also used in well logging applications, in neutron radiography, tomography and other radiochemical investigations.^[27]

The medium half-life of ²²⁷Ac makes it a very convenient radioactive isotope in modeling the slow vertical mixing of oceanic waters. The associated processes cannot be studied with the required accuracy by direct measurements of current velocities (of the order 50 meters per year). However, evaluation of the concentration depth-profiles for different isotopes allows estimating the mixing rates. The physics behind this method is as follows: oceanic waters contain homogeneously dispersed ²³⁵U. Its decay product, ²³¹Pa, gradually precipitates to the bottom, so that its concentration first increases with depth and then stays nearly constant. ²³¹Pa decays to ²²⁷Ac; however, the concentration of the latter isotope does not follow the ²³¹Pa depth profile, but instead increases toward the sea bottom. This occurs because of the mixing processes which raise some additional ²²⁷Ac from the sea bottom. Thus analysis of both ²³¹Pa and ²²⁷Ac depth profiles allows researchers to model the mixing behavior.^[28][29]

• Actinium series
• Actinide

• Isotope masses from:
  • Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
• Half-life, spin, and isomer data selected from the following sources.
  • Audi, Georges; Bersillon, Olivier; Blachot, Jean; Wapstra, Aaldert Hendrik (2003), "The NUBASE evaluation of nuclear and decay properties", Nuclear Physics A, 729: 3–128, Bibcode:2003NuPhA.729....3A, doi:10.1016/j.nuclphysa.2003.11.001
  • National Nuclear Data Center. "NuDat 2.x database". Brookhaven National Laboratory.
  • Holden, Norman E. (2004). "11. Table of the Isotopes". In Lide, David R. (ed.). CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (85th ed.). Boca Raton, Florida: CRC Press. ISBN 978-0-8493-0485-9.