Isotopes of lithium

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Naturally occurring lithium (3Li) is composed of two stable isotopes, lithium-6 (6Li) and lithium-7 (7Li), with the latter being far more abundant on Earth. Radioisotopes are short-lived: the particle-bound ones, 8Li, 9Li, and 11Li, have half-lives of 838.7, 178.2, and 8.75 milliseconds respectively. Both of the natural isotopes have anomalously low nuclear binding energy per nucleon (5332.3312(3) keV for 6Li and 5606.4401(6) keV for 7Li) when compared with the adjacent lighter and heavier elements, helium (7073.9156(4) keV for helium-4) and beryllium (6462.6693(85) keV for beryllium-9), and so their synthesis requires non-equilibrium conditions. Both 7Li and 6Li were produced in the Big Bang, with 7Li estimated to be 5×10−10 of all primordial matter, and 6Li around 10−14 (undetectable). This difference is significant because both isotopes of lithium are efficiently destroyed by protons, while beryllium-7 is not and subsequently decays to lithium. A portion of 7Li is also known to be formed...

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