Carbon-19

Properties and data of the isotope ¹⁹C.

Contents

Carbon-19 is a radioisotope of the chemical element carbon, which has 13 neutrons in its atomic nucleus in addition to the element-specific 6 protons; the sum of the number of these atomic nucleus building blocks results in a mass number of 19. The very short-lived, only artificially produced, unstable and thus radioactive nuclide has no practical significance; the study of ¹⁹C is exclusively for academic purposes.

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

General data

Name of the isotope:Carbon-19; C-19Symbol:¹⁹C or 196CMass number A:19 (= number of nucleons)Atomic number Z:6 (= number of protons)Neutrons N:13Nucleon pairing (Z - N):even - oddNuclear ratio (N/Z ratio):2.1666666666667 (= neutron-proton ratio)Neutron excess (N-Z):7Isotopic mass:19.03480(11) u (atomic weight of Carbon-19)Nuclide mass:19.0315085 u (calculated nuclear mass without electrons)Mass excess:32.41599 MeVMass defect:0.1247941 u (per nucleus)Nuclear binding energy:116.24495539 MeV (per nucleus)
6.11815555 MeV (average binding energy per nucleon)Separation energy:S_N = 0.577(94) MeV (first neutron)
S_P = 26.668(227) MeV (first proton)Half-life:46.2(23) msDecay constant λ:15.003185726406 s^-1Specific activity α:4.755331462747 × 10⁺²³ Bq g^-1
12852247196616 Ci g^-1Spin and parity:
(nuclear angular momentum)(1/2+)Charge radius:2.608 femtometer fmMatter radius:3.134 femtometer fmYear of discovery:1974

Radioactive Decay

Half-life T_½ = 46.2(23) ms respectively 4.62 × 10^-2 seconds s.

Decay mode	Daughter	Probability
β^-, n	¹⁸N	47(3) %
β^-	¹⁹N	46(3) %
β^-, 2n	¹⁷N	7(3) %

Isotones and Isobars

The following table shows the atomic nuclei that are isotonic (same neutron number N = 13) and isobaric (same nucleon number A = 19) with Carbon-19. Naturally occurring isotopes are marked in green; light green = naturally occurring radionuclides.

Z	Isotone N = 13	Isobar A = 19
5	¹⁸B	¹⁹B
6	¹⁹C	¹⁹C
7	²⁰N	¹⁹N
8	²¹O	¹⁹O
9	²²F	¹⁹F
10	²³Ne	¹⁹Ne
11	²⁴Na	¹⁹Na
12	²⁵Mg	¹⁹Mg
13	²⁶Al
14	²⁷Si
15	²⁸P
16	²⁹S
17	³⁰Cl
18	³¹Ar
19	³²K

External data and identifiers

Adopted Levels, Gammas:NuDat 19C

Literature and References

[1] - J. D. Bowman et al.:
Detection of neutron-excess isotopes of low-Z elements produced in high-energy nuclear reactions.
In: Physical Review C, 9, 836, (1974), DOI 10.1103/PhysRevC.9.836.

[2] - Xue-Neng Cao, Quan Liu, Jian-You Guo:
Interpretation of halo in ¹⁹C with complex momentum representation method.
In: Journal of Physics G: Nuclear and Particle Physics, 45, 085105, (2018), DOI 10.1088/1361-6471/aad0bf.