Grumpy, Ex and others have pointed out the compounds used in the Colman Gillespie device per the patent.
Let us now look at the actual isotopes of the main elements and their half life's.
Isotopes of Cobalt:Naturally occurring cobalt (Co) is composed of 1 stable isotope, 59Co. 28 radioisotopes have been characterized with the most stable being 60Co with a half-life of 5.2714 years, 57Co with a half-life of 271.79 days, 56Co with a half-life of 77.27 days, and 58Co with a half-life of 70.86 days. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives that are
less than 18 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 1 second. This element also has 11 meta states, all of which have half-lives less than 15 minutes.
The isotopes of cobalt range in atomic weight from 47Co to 75Co. The primary decay mode for isotopes with atomic mass unit values less than that of the most abundant stable isotope, 59Co, is electron capture and the primary mode of decay for those of greater than 59 atomic mass units is beta decay. The primary decay products before 59Co are iron isotopes and the primary products after are nickel isotopes.
Standard atomic mass: 58.933195(5) u
Isotopes of Cadmium:Naturally occurring cadmium (Cd) is composed of 8 isotopes. For two of them, natural radioactivity was observed, and three others are predicted to be radioactive but their decays were never observed, due to extremely long half-life times. The two natural radioactive isotopes are 113Cd (beta decay, half-life is 7.7 × 1015 years) and 116Cd (two-neutrino double beta decay, half-life is 2.9 × 1019 years). The other three are 106Cd, 108Cd (double electron capture), and 114Cd (double beta decay); only lower limits on their half-life times have been set. At least three isotopes - 110Cd, 111Cd, and 112Cd - are absolutely stable (except, theoretically, to spontaneous fission). Among the isotopes absent in the natural cadmium, the most long-lived are 109Cd with a half-life of 462.6 days, and 115Cd with a half-life of 53.46 hours. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have
half-lives that are less than 2.5 hours and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than 5 minutes. This element also has 8 known meta states with the most stable being 113mCd (t½ 14.1 years), 115mCd (t½ 44.6 days) and 117mCd (t½ 3.36 hours).
The known isotopes of cadmium range in atomic mass from 94.950 u (95Cd) to 131.946 u (132Cd). The primary decay mode before the second most abundant stable isotope, 112Cd, is electron capture and the primary modes after are beta emission and electron capture. The primary decay product before 112Cd is element 47 (silver) and the primary product after is element 49 (indium).
Standard atomic mass: 112.411_ 8_ u
Isotopes of Phosphorus:Although phosphorus (P) has 23 isotopes from 24P to 46P, only one of these isotopes is stable 31P; as such, it is considered a monoisotopic element. The longest-lived radioactive isotopes are 33P with a half-life of 25.34 days and 32P with a half-life of 14.263 days. All other have half-lives under 2.5 minutes, most under a second. The least stable is 25P with a half-life shorter than 30 nanoseconds—the half-life of 24P is unknown.
Standard atomic mass: 30.973762(2) u
Radioactive isotopes of phosphorus include:
32P; a beta-emitter (1.71 MeV) with a half-life of 14.3 days which is used routinely in life-science laboratories, primarily to produce radiolabeled DNA and RNA probe, e.g. for use in Northern blots or Southern blots. Because the high energy beta particles produced penetrate skin and corneas, and because any 32P ingested, inhaled, or absorbed is readily incorporated into bone and nucleic acids, OSHA requires that a lab coat, disposable gloves, and safety glasses or goggles be worn when working with 32P, and that working directly over an open container be avoided in order to protect the eyes.[citation needed] Monitoring personal, clothing, and surface contamination is also required.
In addition, due to the high energy of the beta particles, shielding this radiation with the normally used dense materials (e.g. lead), gives rise to secondary emission of X-rays via a process known as Bremsstrahlung, meaning braking radiation. Therefore shielding must be accomplished with low density materials, e.g. Plexiglas, Lucite, plastic, wood, or water.
33P; a beta-emitter (0.25 MeV) with a half-life of 25.4 days. It is used in life-science laboratories in applications in which lower energy beta emissions are advantageous such as DNA sequencing. Phosphorus-33 can be used to label nucleotides. It is less energetic than 32P, giving a better resolution. A disadvantage is its higher cost compared to 32P, as most of the bombarded 31P will have acquired only one neutron, while only some will have acquired two or more. Its maximum specific activity is 5118 Ci/mol.
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Food for thought (cut and pasted from web search):
"Metastable isomers can be produced through nuclear fusion or other nuclear reactions. A nucleus thus produced generally starts its existence in an excited state that de-excites through the emission of one or more gamma rays (or, equivalently, conversion electrons), usually in a time far shorter than a picosecond. However, sometimes it happens that the de-excitation does not proceed rapidly all the way to the nuclear ground state. This usually occurs because of the formation of an intermediate excited state with a spin far different from that of the ground state. Gamma-ray emission is far slower (is "hindered") if the spin of the post-emission state is very different from that of the emitting state, particularly if the excitation energy is low, than if the two states are of similar spin. The excited state in this situation is therefore a good candidate to be metastable, if there are no other states of intermediate spin with excitation energies less than that of the metastable state.Metastable isomers of a particular isotope are usually designated with an "m" (or, in the case of isotopes with more than one isomer, m2, m3, and so on). This designation is usually placed after the atomic symbol and number of the atom (e.g., Co-58m), but is sometimes placed as a superscript before (e.g., 58mCo). Increasing indices, m, m2, etc. correlate with increasing levels of excitation energy stored in each of the isomeric states (e.g., Hf-177m2 or 177m2Hf).A different kind of metastable nuclear state (isomer) is the fission isomer or shape isomer. Most actinide nuclei, in their ground states, are not spherical, but rather spheroidal — specifically, prolate, with an axis of symmetry longer than the other axes (similar to an American football or rugby ball, although with a less pronounced departure from spherical symmetry). In some of these, quantum-mechanical states can exist in which the distribution of protons and neutrons is farther yet from spherical (in fact, about as non-spherical as an American football), so much so that de-excitation to the nuclear ground state is strongly hindered. In general these states either de-excite to the ground state (albeit far more slowly than a "usual" excited state) or undergo spontaneous fission with half lives of the order of nanoseconds or microseconds— a very short time, but many orders of magnitude longer than the half life of a more usual nuclear excited state."
"Metastable isomers may also decay by internal conversion — a process in which the energy of nuclear de-excitation is not emitted as a gamma ray, but instead used to accelerate one of the inner electrons of the atom, so that it leaves at high speed and energy. This process is only possible because inner atomic electrons penetrate the nucleus, where they are subject to the intense electric fields which result when the protons of the nucleus re-arrange in a different way. In nuclei which are far from stability in energy, still other decay modes are known."
Anyone guess if this is relevant?
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