Properties | More Info | Isotopes | Spectra
Compounds | Reactions | Production
Atomic: M.A.C. | Reference
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Isotopes of Cobalt
Notable Isotopes show graph
56Co [29 neutrons]
Abundance: synthetic
Half life: 77.27 days [ Electron Capture ]
Decay Energy: 4.566 MeV
Decays to 56Fe.
57Co [30 neutrons]
Abundance: synthetic
Half life: 271.79 days [ Electron Capture ]
Decay Energy: 0.836 MeV
Decays to 57Fe.
58Co [31 neutrons]
Abundance: synthetic
Half life: 70.86 days [ Electron Capture ]
Decay Energy: 2.307 MeV
Decays to 58Fe.
59Co [32 neutrons]
Abundance: 100%
Stable with 32 neutrons
60Co [33 neutrons]
Abundance: synthetic
Half life: 5.2714 years [ beta- ]
Decay Energy: 2.824 MeV
Decays to 60Ni.
Cobalt-60 (60Co) is a radioactive metal that is used in radiotherapy. The metal has the unfortunate habit of producing a fine dust, causing problems with radiation protection. Cobalt-60 has a radioactive half-llife of 5.27 years. This decrease in activity requires periodic replacement of the sources used in radiotherapy. This is one more reason why cobalt machines have been largely replaced by linear accelerators (linacs) in modern radiation therapy.
Cobalt-60 is useful as a gamma ray source because it can be produced-in predictable quantity, and high activity-by simply exposing natural cobalt to neutrons in a reactor for a given time. It is used for; sterilization, radiation treatment of foods, industrial radiography, density measurements and tank fill height switches.