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Lithium-6 vs. Lithium-7: What Lithium Isotopes Are and How They Differ

Lithium-6 and lithium-7 both have three protons, but differ by one neutron. Here’s how their mass, abundance and nuclear properties set them apart.
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Lithium-6 and lithium-7 are two stable forms of lithium. Each has three protons, but lithium-6 has three neutrons while lithium-7 has four. That extra neutron changes the atom’s mass and some nuclear properties, while the two isotopes remain the same element and have nearly the same chemistry.

What makes lithium-6 and lithium-7 isotopes?

An isotope is a form of an element whose atoms have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons. Lithium’s atomic number is 3, so every lithium atom has three protons. The number after the hyphen is the mass number: the total number of protons and neutrons.

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Isotope Protons Neutrons Relative atomic mass Representative abundance Stability
Lithium-6 3 3 6.0151228874(16) 7.59(4)% Stable
Lithium-7 3 4 7.0160034366(45) 92.41(4)% Stable

Atomic masses and representative compositions are from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions table, accessed in 2026. Parenthetical digits indicate uncertainty in the final reported digits. The isotope labels 6 and 7 are whole-number mass numbers, not the precise atomic masses listed in the table.

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How common is each lithium isotope?

NIST’s representative composition is about 7.59% lithium-6 and 92.41% lithium-7, making lithium-7 the much more common isotope in the reference composition. These are representative values for materials commonly encountered in laboratories, not a guarantee that every lithium sample has exactly that ratio. Lithium isotope proportions can vary among materials and through physical, chemical, and biological processes; IUPAC’s report on isotopic composition of lithium documents this variation.

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Enriched lithium is different from ordinary representative composition: enrichment means a material has been processed to contain a higher proportion of a chosen isotope. The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Isotope Development Center lists catalog specifications of 95–99 atom % for lithium-6 and greater than 99.5 atom % for lithium-7. Those are product specifications, not natural-abundance figures, and catalog availability can change; see the lithium product listing.

Why do the isotopes matter if they are both lithium?

Because they have the same number of protons, lithium-6 and lithium-7 have nearly the same chemistry. Their different masses and nuclear properties nevertheless matter in particular measurements and applications. Small physical and chemical differences can cause the isotopes to separate, or fractionate, during natural and industrial processes.

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Environmental tracing

Scientists can use lithium isotope ratios to investigate where dissolved lithium came from and how it has been affected by environmental processes. IUPAC notes that isotope ratios in water can help distinguish some sources, including water associated with marine sedimentary rocks and water associated with hydrothermally altered igneous rocks. Ratios are evidence used alongside other information, not a universal fingerprint that identifies every water source on its own.

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Selected nuclear applications

The isotopes have distinct roles in nuclear settings. IUPAC describes lithium-7 hydroxide monohydrate as a material used to help control coolant pH in pressurized-water reactors. Lithium-6 can produce tritium after capturing a neutron. These examples reflect different nuclear properties; they do not change the basic fact that both atoms are lithium.

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Precision spectroscopy

Isotope mass differences also show up in atomic spectra. In a 2011 account, NIST described how frequency-comb techniques were used to measure differences in spectral emissions between lithium-6 and lithium-7. The work addressed earlier measurement results that disagreed about both the size and direction of the differences. Read NIST’s account, “Reading Between the Lines in Lithium”.

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What to remember

  • Both isotopes have three protons; lithium-6 has three neutrons and lithium-7 has four.
  • Both are stable, and lithium-7 is more abundant in NIST’s representative composition.
  • Actual isotope ratios can vary between samples.
  • Their near-identical chemistry coexists with measurable differences in mass and nuclear behavior, which are useful in science and selected applications.

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