Carbon-10

Properties and data of the isotope ¹⁰C.

Contents

Carbon-10 is a radioisotope of the chemical element carbon, which, in addition to the element-specific 6 protons, has 4 neutrons in the atomic nucleus, resulting in the mass number 10. The very short-lived, unstable and therefore radioactive nuclide, which can only be produced artificially, has no practical significance; Working with ¹⁰C serves exclusively academic purposes or basic research.

The discovery of the proton-rich isotope was reported in 1949: Carbon-10 was produced by irradiating a boron-10 target with 17 MeV protons in a cyclotron [1]:

¹⁰B(p,n)¹⁰C.

See also: List of individual Carbon isotopes (and general data sources).

General data

Name of the isotope:Carbon-10; C-10Symbol:¹⁰C or 106CMass number A:10 (= number of nucleons)Atomic number Z:6 (= number of protons)Neutrons N:4Nucleon pairing (Z - N):even - evenNuclear ratio (N/Z ratio):0.66666666666667 (= neutron-proton ratio)Neutron excess (N-Z):-2Isotopic mass:10.01685322(7) u (atomic weight of Carbon-10)Nuclide mass:10.0135618 u (calculated nuclear mass without electrons)Mass excess:15.69867 MeVMass defect:0.064756636 u (per nucleus)Nuclear binding energy:60.32041789 MeV (per nucleus)
6.03204179 MeV (average binding energy per nucleon)Separation energy:S_N = 21.2836(21) MeV (first neutron)
S_P = 4.0068(9) MeV (first proton)Half-life:19.290(12) sDecay constant λ:0.035932979811298 s^-1Specific activity α:2.16393465940 × 10⁺²¹ Bq g^-1
58484720524.568 Ci g^-1Spin and parity:
(nuclear angular momentum)0+Isobaric spin: 1Charge radius:2.684 femtometer fmMatter radius:2.428 femtometer fmMirror nucleus:Beryllium-10Year of discovery:1949

Radioactive Decay

For the nuclide ¹⁰C, a super-allowed β-decay with a branching ratio of 1.4638(50)% was observed [2].

Half-life T_½ = 19.290(12) s respectively 1.9290 × 10¹ seconds s.

Decay mode	Daughter	Probability	Decay energy	γ energy (intensity)
β⁺	¹⁰B		3.64806(7) MeV

Isotones and Isobars

The following table shows the atomic nuclei that are isotonic (same neutron number N = 4) and isobaric (same nucleon number A = 10) with Carbon-10. Naturally occurring isotopes are marked in green; light green = naturally occurring radionuclides.

Z	Isotone N = 4	Isobar A = 10
1	⁵H
2	⁶He	¹⁰He
3	⁷Li	¹⁰Li
4	⁸Be	¹⁰Be
5	⁹B	¹⁰B
6	¹⁰C	¹⁰C
7	¹¹N	¹⁰N
8	¹²O
9	¹³F

External data and identifiers

Adopted Levels, Gammas:NuDat 10C

Literature and References

[1] - R. Sherr, H. R. Muether, M. G. White:
Radioactivity of C¹⁰ and O¹⁴.
In: Physical Review, 75, 282, (1949), DOI 10.1103/PhysRev.75.282.

[2] - B. Blank, M. Aouadi, P. Ascher et al.:
Branching ratio of the super-allowed β decay of ¹⁰C.
In: The European Physical Journal A, 56, 156, (2020), DOI 10.1140/epja/s10050-020-00165-1.

[3] - R. J. Charity, L. G. Sobotka, T. B. Webb, K. W. Brown:
Two-proton decay from α-cluster states in ¹⁰C and ¹¹N.
In: Physical Review C, 105, 014314, (2022), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevC.105.014314.