Isotopically pure diamond Isotopically pure diamond An isotopical pure diamond is a type of diamond that is composed entirely of one isotope of carbon. Isotopically pure diamonds have been manufactured from either the more common carbon isotope with mass number 12 (abbreviated as C) or the less common C isotope. Compared to natural diamonds that are composed of a mixture of C and C isotopes, isotopically pure diamonds possess improved characteristics such as increased thermal conductivity. Thermal conductivity of diamonds is at a minimum when C and C are in a ratio of 1:1 and reaches a maximum when the composition is 100%
Chemical element so long (at least 100 million times longer than the estimated age of the universe) that their radioactive decay has yet to be detected by experiment. Elements with atomic numbers 83 through 94 are unstable to the point that their radioactive decay can be detected. Three of these elements, bismuth (element 83), thorium (element 90), and uranium (element 92) have one or more isotopes with half-lives long enough to survive as remnants of the explosive stellar nucleosynthesis that produced the heavy elements before the formation of our solar system. For example, at over 1.9 years, over a billion times longer