Editing Zirconium (section)

===Isotopes===
{{Main|Isotopes of zirconium}}

Naturally occurring zirconium is composed of five isotopes. <sup>90</sup>Zr, <sup>91</sup>Zr, <sup>92</sup>Zr and <sup>94</sup>Zr are stable, although <sup>94</sup>Zr is predicted to undergo [[double beta decay]] (not observed experimentally) with a [[half-life]] of more than 1.10×10<sup>17</sup>&nbsp;years. <sup>96</sup>Zr has a half-life of 2.34×10<sup>19</sup>&nbsp;years, and is the longest-lived radioisotope of zirconium. Of these natural isotopes, <sup>90</sup>Zr is the most common, making up 51.45% of all zirconium. <sup>96</sup>Zr is the least common, comprising only 2.80% of zirconium.{{NUBASE2020|ref}}

Thirty-three artificial isotopes of zirconium have been synthesized, ranging in atomic mass from 77 to 114.{{NUBASE2020|ref}}<ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://journals.aps.org/prc/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevC.103.014614|doi = 10.1103/PhysRevC.103.014614|title = Observation of new neutron-rich isotopes in the vicinity of Zr110|year = 2021|last1 = Sumikama|first1 = T.|last2 = Fukuda|first2 = N.|last3 = Inabe|first3 = N.|last4 = Kameda|first4 = D.|last5 = Kubo|first5 = T.|last6 = Shimizu|first6 = Y.|last7 = Suzuki|first7 = H.|last8 = Takeda|first8 = H.|last9 = Yoshida|first9 = K.|last10 = Baba|first10 = H.|last11 = Browne|first11 = F.|last12 = Bruce|first12 = A. M.|last13 = Carroll|first13 = R.|last14 = Chiga|first14 = N.|last15 = Daido|first15 = R.|last16 = Didierjean|first16 = F.|last17 = Doornenbal|first17 = P.|last18 = Fang|first18 = Y.|last19 = Gey|first19 = G.|last20 = Ideguchi|first20 = E.|last21 = Isobe|first21 = T.|last22 = Lalkovski|first22 = S.|last23 = Li|first23 = Z.|last24 = Lorusso|first24 = G.|last25 = Lozeva|first25 = R.|last26 = Nishibata|first26 = H.|last27 = Nishimura|first27 = S.|last28 = Nishizuka|first28 = I.|last29 = Odahara|first29 = A.|last30 = Patel|first30 = Z.|journal = Physical Review C|volume = 103| issue=1 | page=014614 | bibcode=2021PhRvC.103a4614S |s2cid = 234019083|display-authors = 1|hdl = 10261/260248|hdl-access = free}}</ref> [[Zirconium-93|<sup>93</sup>Zr]] is the longest-lived artificial isotope, with a half-life of 1.61×10<sup>6</sup>&nbsp;years. Radioactive isotopes at or above mass number 93 decay by [[beta decay|electron emission]], whereas those at or below 89 decay by [[beta decay|positron emission]]. The only exception is <sup>88</sup>Zr, which decays by [[electron capture]].{{NUBASE2020|ref}}

Thirteen isotopes of zirconium also exist as [[nuclear isomer|metastable isomers]]: <sup>83m1</sup>Zr, <sup>83m2</sup>Zr, <sup>85m</sup>Zr, <sup>87m</sup>Zr, <sup>88m</sup>Zr, <sup>89m</sup>Zr, <sup>90m1</sup>Zr, <sup>90m2</sup>Zr, <sup>91m</sup>Zr, <sup>97m</sup>Zr, <sup>98m</sup>Zr, <sup>99m</sup>Zr, and <sup>108m</sup>Zr. Of these, <sup>97m</sup>Zr has the shortest half-life at 104.8&nbsp;nanoseconds. <sup>89m</sup>Zr is the longest lived with a half-life of 4.161&nbsp;minutes.{{NUBASE2020|ref}}