Isotopes of nickel

Naturally occurring nickel (Ni) is composed of five stable isotopes; 58Ni, 60Ni, 61Ni, 62Ni and 64Ni with 58Ni being the most abundant (68.077% natural abundance). 26 radioisotopes have been characterised with the most stable being 59Ni with a half-life of 76,000 years, 63Ni with a half-life of 100.1 years, and 56Ni with a half-life of 6.077 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are less than 60 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 30 seconds. This element also has 1 meta state.

Isotopes of nickel

The 5 stable and 26 unstable isotopes of nickel range in atomic weight from 48Ni to 78Ni, and include:

Nickel-48, discovered in 1999, is the most neutron-poor nickel isotope known. With 28 protons and 20 neutrons 48Ni is "doubly magic" (like 208Pb) and therefore unusually stable.

Nickel-56 is produced in large quantities in type Ia supernovae and the shape of the light curve of these supernovae display characteristic timescales corresponding to the decay of nickel-56 to cobalt-56 and then to iron-56.