Vanadium

Vanadium is a chemical element with symbol V and atomic number 23. It is a hard, silvery gray metal of the first transition series (Sc to Zn). Its physical and chemical properties are well described in Wikipedia's article "Vanadium". This article addresses material not well covered elsewhere.

One of vanadium's two stable isotopes, ⁵¹V, can be produced by slow neutron capture during the last evolutionary stages of low-mass stars. It can also form during the last evolutionary step in high-mass stars. 99.75 of all V atoms are ⁵¹V. Vanadium's other stable isotope, ⁵⁰V, cannot be produced by neutron or alpha capture reaction, nor can it be produced as a decay product. It appears to form when a ⁵¹V nucleus captures a gamma ray and ejects a neutron.

⁵⁰V does emit radiation, but its half-life is many times the current age of the universe - so it is a stable nuclide which happens to emit radiation rather than a radioactive nucleus. It is also the heaviest stable nuclide having both an odd number of protons and an odd number of neutrons. There is an odd-odd nuclide, ^180mTa, which is stable - but it is a high-spin isomer which is incapable of shedding enough spin to reach its ground state. The ground state, ¹⁸⁰Ta (or ^180gTa), beta-decays with a short half-life. That is a very different phenomenon from the inherent nuclear stability of ⁵⁰V, an outlier of the kind of stability exhibited between ²H and ¹⁴N.

There is subphylum of animals called tunicates (which include sea squirts), many of which concentrate vanadium within vacuoles in their blood cells. They do the same with other metals, but vanadium is the most common.

(01-03-21)

9-Period Periodic Table of Elements
1	1 H																																																																	2 He
2	3 Li	4 Be																																																																	5 B	6 C	7 N	8 O	9 F	10 Ne
3	11 Na	12 Mg																																																																	13 Al	14 Si	15 P	16 S	17 Cl	18 Ar
4	19 K	20 Ca																																																																	21 Sc	22 Ti	23 V	24 Cr	25 Mn	26 Fe	27 Co	28 Ni	29 Cu	30 Zn	31 Ga	32 Ge	33 As	34 Se	35 Br	36 Kr
5	37 Rb	38 Sr																																																																	39 Y	40 Zr	41 Nb	42 Mo	43 Tc	44 Ru	45 Rh	46 Pd	47 Ag	48 Cd	49 In	50 Sn	51 Sb	52 Te	53 I	54 Xe
6	55 Cs	56 Ba																																																					57 La	58 Ce	59 Pr	60 Nd	61 Pm	62 Sm	63 Eu	64 Gd	65 Tb	66 Dy	67 Ho	68 Er	69 Tm	70 Yb	71 Lu	72 Hf	73 Ta	74 W	75 Re	76 Os	77 Ir	78 Pt	79 Au	80 Hg	81 Tl	82 Pb	83 Bi	84 Po	85 At	86 Rn
7	87 Fr	88 Ra																																																					89 Ac	90 Th	91 Pa	92 U	93 Np	94 Pu	95 Am	96 Cm	97 Bk	98 Cf	99 Es	100 Fm	101 Md	102 No	103 Lr	104 Rf	105 Db	106 Sg	107 Bh	108 Hs	109 Mt	110 Ds	111 Rg	112 Cn	113 Nh	114 Fl	115 Mc	116 Lv	117 Ts	118 Og
8	119 Uue	120 Ubn																															121 Ubu	122 Ubb	123 Ubt	124 Ubq	125 Ubp	126 Ubh	127 Ubs	128 Ubo	129 Ube	130 Utn	131 Utu	132 Utb	133 Utt	134 Utq	135 Utp	136 Uth	137 Uts	138 Uto	139 Ute	140 Uqn	141 Uqu	142 Uqb	143 Uqt	144 Uqq	145 Uqp	146 Uqh	147 Uqs	148 Uqo	149 Uqe	150 Upn	151 Upu	152 Upb	153 Upt	154 Upq	155 Upp	156 Uph	157 Ups	158 Upo	159 Upe	160 Uhn	161 Uhu	162 Uhb	163 Uht	164 Uhq	165 Uhp	166 Uhh	167 Uhs	168 Uho	169 Uhe	170 Usn	171 Usu	172 Usb
9	173 Ust	174 Usq
Alkali metal Alkaline earth metal Lanthanide Actinide Superactinide Transition metal Post-transition metal Metalloid Other nonmetal Halogen Noble gas predicted predicted predicted predicted predicted predicted predicted predicted predicted