Mercury-197m

There are seven stable isotopes of mercury, with ²⁰²Hg being the most abundant (29.86%). The longest-lived radioisotopes are ¹⁹⁴Hg with a half-life of 444 years, and ²⁰³Hg with a half-life of 46.612 days. Most of the remaining radioisotopes have half-lives that are less than a day.

For the synthesis of precious metals two stable mercury isotopes are of potential interest - the trace isotope ¹⁹⁶Hg and the more abundant ¹⁹⁸Hg. Both are “one neutron removed” from ¹⁹⁷Hg, a radioisotope which decays to ¹⁹⁷Au, the only known stable isotope of gold.

Spectrum (Fullscreen)

30 minute measurement with a High Purity Germanium (HPGe) radiation detector.

Metadata

Isotope:	Mercury
Mass number:	197
Atomic number:	80
Neutron number:	117
…	…

Sources and Further Read

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isotopes_of_mercury
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mercury_(element)#Isotopes