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How many isotopes does carbon have?

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There are three naturally occurring isotopes of carbon: 12, 13, and 14. 12 C and 13 C are stable, occurring in a natural proportion of approximately 99:1. 14 C is produced by thermal neutrons from cosmic radiation in the upper atmosphere, and is transported down to earth to be absorbed by living biological material. read more

There are 16 known isotopes of Carbon, and 3 of these occur naturally. Of these naturally occurring isotopes, 12 C and 13 C are stable and the other natural isotope, 14 C, is radioactive (unstable) with a half life of 5,700 years. read more

C-14 is famous for its use in carbon dating and has a half-life of 5,700 years. This means after 5,700 years, half of the carbon will have decayed into nitrogen-14. C-11 is the most stable of the man-made isotopes, with a half-life of a little over 20 minutes. The other radioisotopes have half-lives that last for seconds or fractions of seconds. read more

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