Isotopes of tin
one of either 10 stable, naturally-occurring isotopes of tin or artificial, unstable isotopes of tin
Tin (50Sn) is the element with the greatest number of naturally abundant isotopes, 10. Seven, 114-120Sn, are theoretically stable, while the remaining three, 112Sn, 122Sn, and 124Sn, are potentially radioactive to double beta decay, but no decay has been observed. This is generally attributed to the fact that 50 is a "magic number" of protons. In addition, 32 unstable tin isotopes are known, including tin-100 (100Sn) and tin-132 (132Sn), which are both "doubly magic". The longest-lived of these is tin-126 (126Sn), with a half-life about 230,000 years; with all others less than a year and the majority under 20 minutes.
The number of known metastable states is very large, including a long series of low-lying states in odd isotopes from 117 on, which gives two nuclides with a longer life than any ground-state radioisotope other than 126: 121mSn, half-life 43.9 years, and 119mSn, half-life 293.1 days.
List of isotopes
Tin-117m
Tin-117m is a radioisotope of tin. One of its uses is in a particulate suspension to treat canine synovitis (radiosynoviorthesis).
Tin-121m
Tin-121m (121mSn) is a nuclear isomer of tin with a half-life of 43.9 years, making it technically a medium-lived fission product.
In a normal thermal reactor, it has a very low fission product yield; thus, this isotope is not a significant contributor to nuclear waste.
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