Isotopes of barium Isotopes of barium Naturally occurring barium (Ba) is a mix of six stable isotopes and one very long-lived radioactive primordial isotope, barium-130, recently identified as being unstable by geochemical means (from analysis of the presence of its daughter xenon-130 in rocks). This nuclide decays by double-electron capture (absorbing two electrons and emitting two neutrinos); with a half-life of (0.5–2.7)×10 years (about 10 times the age of the universe). There are a total of thirty-three known radioisotopes in addition to Ba, but most of these are highly radioactive with half-lives in the several millisecond to several minute range. The only notable
Native metal brass, bronze, pewter, German silver, osmiridium, electrum, white gold, and silver-mercury and gold-mercury amalgam. Only gold, silver, copper and the platinum metals occur in nature in large amounts. Over geological time scales, very few metals can resist natural weathering processes like oxidation, which is why generally only the less reactive metals such as gold and platinum are found as native metals. The others usually occur as isolated pockets where a natural chemical process reduces a common compound or ore of the metal, leaving the pure metal behind as small flakes or inclusions. Non-metallic elements occurring in the native state include