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Isotopes

Naturally occurring vanadium is composed of one stable isotope, V, and one radioactive isotope, V. The latter has a half-life of 2.71×10 years and a natural abundance of 0.25%. V has a nuclear spin of 7 ⁄ 2, which is useful for NMR spectroscopy. Twenty-four artificial radioisotopes have been characterized, ranging in mass number from 40 to 65. The most stable of these isotopes are V with a half-life of 330 days, and V with a half-life of 16.0 days. The remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives shorter than an hour, most below 10 seconds. At least four isotopes have metastable excited states. Electron capture is the main decay mode for isotopes lighter than V. For the heavier ones, the most common mode is beta decay. The electron capture reactions lead to the formation of element 22 (titanium) isotopes, while beta decay leads to element 24 (chromium) isotopes.