Decay Simulator: Thallium-216

General data

Radioactive decay series

• Thallium-216 6 s
• Lead-216 99 s · 88.5%
• Bismuth-216 2.25 min · 88.5%
• Polonium-216 144.0 ms · 88.5%
• Lead-212 10.628 h · 88.5%
• Bismuth-212 60.55 min · 88.5%
• Polonium-212 295.0 ns · 56.7%
• Thallium-208 3.053 min · 31.8%
• Lead-208 stable · 88.5%
• Lead-215 142 s · 11.5%
• Bismuth-215 7.6 min · 11.5%
• Polonium-215 1.781 ms · 11.5%
• Lead-211 36.1648 min · 11.5%
• Bismuth-211 2.14 min · 11.5%
• Thallium-207 4.77 min · 11.5%
• Polonium-211 0.516 s · 0.032%
• Lead-207 stable · 11.5%

Rare branches (below 0.01%)

Rare branches are transformations that occur in fewer than 0.01% of decays, e.g. double beta decay or cluster emission. The nuclides they produce are practically absent from a sample, so they are hidden by default to keep the main path clear. In this series: branches - 1, nuclides - 1.

• Astatine-215 37 μs · 2.6×10⁻⁵%

How to read the simulation

Grid: each pixel is one atom of the starting isotope. When an atom decays, the pixel takes the colour of the decay product - in decay series mode the product can decay further. The moment each atom decays is random, but the probability follows from the half-life, so after one T½ about half of the atoms remain, after two - about a quarter.

Chart N(t): what percentage of the sample atoms each nuclide makes up at a given moment. The line of the starting isotope falls (by half after each T½), the lines of stable products rise, and those of short-lived ones first rise, then fall.

Chart A(t): activity, i.e. the number of decays per second (becquerel, Bq). It depends on the number of atoms and on how fast they decay: for the same number of atoms, the shorter the T½, the higher the activity.

Simulation time runs faster (or slower) than real time - the time scale slider sets the multiplier. This way you can watch the decay of isotopes that live from fractions of a second to billions of years.

Well-known isotopes

• H-3 - Tritium - glowing watch hands, nuclear fusion fuel.
• C-14 - Radiocarbon dating.
• K-40 - Natural radioactivity - in bananas and in our bodies.
• Co-60 - Radiotherapy and radiation sterilization.
• I-131 - Thyroid treatment; Chernobyl fallout.
• Cs-137 - Long-lasting contamination after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
• Rn-222 - Radon in basements and mines.
• Ra-226 - The longest-lived isotope of radium - the element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
• U-235 - Nuclear power plant fuel; start of the actinium series.
• U-238 - Age of the Earth; start of the uranium series.
• Pu-238 - Power source for space probes (Voyager, Curiosity rover).
• Am-241 - Ionization smoke detectors.