Talk:Isotopes of polonium

210Po toxicity
One microgram is not enough to kill anyone. I estimate the committed dose to a 91 kg man for a microgram of 210Po would be around 0.08 Sv. That would not be enough to kill anybody. However a milligram would work just fine. It would deposit a committed 4 Gy dose equivalent to 82 Sv. The lethal quantity of one microgram should be changed in the text. This was calculated using the half-life of 210Po, the biological half-life of 50 days, and the absorption into the body of about 75% of that ingested.Pionade (talk) 16:00, 7 November 2014 (UTC)


 * The RSC article on Po210 indicates a fatal dose of a microgram, not a milligram. Since the dose has now been altered to a milligram in the article, should not the relative toxicity compared to cyanide be edited down to 250, not 250000? Chrisj1948 (talk) 17:09, 31 July 2015 (UTC)

Po-210 Specific Activity
Po-210 has a half life 4223 times shorter than Ra-226 (365.25/138.376)*1600. So that a certain number of atoms say 2.868E+18 (1mg) would produce the same decay rate (166.3GBq) as 1.211E+22 (4.546g) Ra-226 atoms. This checks C. R. Hammond's value given in the Handbook of Chemistry and Physics (as 5g). Darian2 (talk) 23:06, 2 October 2012 (UTC)

Z column
The Z column in the table is redundant. By definition, the polonium nucleus contains 84 protons. Axl ¤  [Talk]  19:18, 31 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, but what's wrong with a little reminder? Double sharp (talk) 06:14, 25 September 2015 (UTC)

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Magic numbers
If Po210 has a magic number of neutrons and Po209 doesn't, then why is Po209 more stable than Po210? 32ieww (talk) 00:18, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Magic numbers don't tell the whole story. Tin-100 is very unstable despite being doubly magic.--Jasper Deng (talk) 02:23, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

This is actually an interesting question, since 210Po, unlike 100Sn, falls exactly on the beta-stability line. I suspect this may be due to the loose binding of the valence protons in 210Po; the nucleons forming the alpha particle are also already spin-paired in the decay of 210Po to 206Pb, unlike that of 209Bi to 205Tl, and because this is an even-even decay the decay is not forbidden. Double sharp (talk) 11:31, 21 May 2017 (UTC)

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How to edit the footnotes to the table?
For example, the line "Bold italics symbol as daughter – Daughter product is nearly stable." cannot be edited by me because I cannot see it when I click on any of the edit links on the article page. Polar Apposite (talk) 17:18, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

The phrase "nearly stable" seems unclear.
In "Bold italics symbol as daughter – Daughter product is nearly stable.", how about substituting "has an extremely long half-life." or "is for all practical purposes stable" for "is nearly stable"? It's not clear what nearly stable means. It could mean, to some readers, that it has a short half-life due to an unlikely set of circumstances. Polar Apposite (talk) 17:24, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

How to edit the small table title?
The small table with the title "Isotopes of polonium (84Po)" is actually a table of the three important isotopes of polonium, and so I'd like to edit the title to say something to that effect, but I can't see how to that. Also, would that be a good idea? Polar Apposite (talk) 17:27, 15 August 2023 (UTC)

Alpha decay energies of isotopes of polonium

 * Continutation according to this table:
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! Isotopes !! Alpha decay energy (MeV)
 * 173Po || 11.12
 * 174Po || 10.78
 * 175Po || 10.26
 * 176Po || 10.21
 * 177Po || 10.22
 * 178Po || 9.87
 * 179Po || 9.47
 * 180Po || 9.34
 * 181Po || 9.17
 * 182Po || 8.87
 * 183Po || 8.63
 * 184Po || 8.55
 * 185Po || 8.39
 * 186Po || 8.29
 * 222Po || 3.42
 * 223Po || 2.94
 * 224Po || 2.68
 * 225Po || 2.50
 * 226Po || 2.23
 * 227Po || 2.01
 * 228Po || 1.82
 * 229Po || 1.70
 * 230Po || 1.46
 * 231Po || 1.23
 * 232Po || 1.12
 * 233Po || 1.02
 * 234Po || 0.82
 * 235Po || 0.57
 * 236Po || 0.44
 * 237Po || 0.20
 * 238Po || -0.06
 * 239Po || -0.35
 * 240Po || -0.41
 * 241Po || -0.36
 * 242Po || -0.67
 * 243Po || -0.93
 * 244Po || -1.03
 * }
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 226Po || 2.23
 * 227Po || 2.01
 * 228Po || 1.82
 * 229Po || 1.70
 * 230Po || 1.46
 * 231Po || 1.23
 * 232Po || 1.12
 * 233Po || 1.02
 * 234Po || 0.82
 * 235Po || 0.57
 * 236Po || 0.44
 * 237Po || 0.20
 * 238Po || -0.06
 * 239Po || -0.35
 * 240Po || -0.41
 * 241Po || -0.36
 * 242Po || -0.67
 * 243Po || -0.93
 * 244Po || -1.03
 * }
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 237Po || 0.20
 * 238Po || -0.06
 * 239Po || -0.35
 * 240Po || -0.41
 * 241Po || -0.36
 * 242Po || -0.67
 * 243Po || -0.93
 * 244Po || -1.03
 * }
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 242Po || -0.67
 * 243Po || -0.93
 * 244Po || -1.03
 * }
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 244Po || -1.03
 * }
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)
 * 129.104.241.218 (talk) 06:17, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

Possible double beta minus decay of 216Po
216Po is potentially capable of double beta minus decay, although the estimated half-life should be very long. 129.104.241.214 (talk) 11:35, 28 November 2023 (UTC)


 * Do you have a source for this statement? Dirac66 (talk) 22:28, 28 November 2023 (UTC)
 * Nothing special. It's just a comparison of the mass of the two nuclides. 129.104.241.242 (talk) 04:12, 29 November 2023 (UTC)


 * Wikipedia would only include that sort of prediction if it were published in the scientific literature. Otherwise we would be doing original research without reliable sources, which is not allowed. See WP:NOR. Dirac66 (talk) 02:06, 30 November 2023 (UTC)
 * OK, thanks for your reply. 129.104.241.214 (talk) 02:39, 30 November 2023 (UTC)


 * It is listed in this source. Double sharp (talk) 08:39, 13 December 2023 (UTC)
 * @Double sharp. Thank you for this source. I have now added this information as a comment below the List of isotopes. We could insert the comment instead in the line for 216Po, but I was not able to figure out how to do that. Dirac66 (talk) 22:38, 24 December 2023 (UTC)
 * It seems that we can't insert a reference into a comment line. 129.104.241.214 (talk) 21:29, 27 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I've directly added this to the table because the double beta minus decay of 216Po is already mentioned in NUBASE2020. 129.104.241.214 (talk) 14:35, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

212Po as a naturally existing nuclide
212Po has the shortest half-life (294.4 ns) and highest decay energy (8.95412 MeV) among the decay products of primordial 232Th, 235U, 238U. 214Rn has larger decay energy (9.2084 MeV), but it does not exist in nature.

212Po is followed by 215At (100 μs), 214Po (164.3 μs), 215Po (1.781 ms), 218Rn (35 ms), 216Po (145 ms), 211Po (511 ms) among the decay products.

212Po is very similar to 8Be as α + doubly-magic nuclei that have the lowest energies (so they look stable a priori) and yet are the least stable among their isobars (8He and 212Pb are more stable by respectively 15 and 11 orders of magnitude). 129.104.241.242 (talk) 10:39, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
 * I now have a strong urge to salute Otto Hahn for identifying 212Po as far back as 1906. O_O Double sharp (talk) 13:54, 28 December 2023 (UTC)
 * Agreed :) 129.104.241.214 (talk) 14:36, 28 December 2023 (UTC)

Why would NUBASE not list the 8+ state of 212Po as an isomer?
Its half-life is 14.6 ns, so it qualifies to be an isomer. 129.104.241.242 (talk) 03:05, 3 May 2024 (UTC)


 * According to page 030001-2 of NUBASE2020, only isomers with half-life >100 ns will be listed. Nucleus hydro elemon (talk) 04:51, 3 May 2024 (UTC)
 * Ah, thanks! 129.104.241.242 (talk) 12:58, 3 May 2024 (UTC)
 * A convention not very fair for 212Po: the g.s. half-life is only 294.4 ns, so 14.6 ns is not so short for deserving its own place in the isotope table. In fact, considering the alpha intensity of 3%, this isomer has even longer alpha half-life than the ground state :) 2A04:CEC0:10F4:BE6A:84C0:A2B0:36F4:AFE6 (talk) 17:08, 7 May 2024 (UTC)