A monoisotopic element is an element which has only a single stable isotope. There are only 26 elements that have this property. A list is given in a following section. Stability is experimentally defined for chemical elements, as there are a number of stable nuclides with atomic numbers over ~40 which are theoretically unstable, but apparently have half-lives so long that they have not been observed directly or indirectly to decay. Monoisotopic elements are characterized, except in a single case, by odd numbers of protons, and even numbers of neutrons. Because of the energy gain from nuclear pairing effects, the odd number of protons imparts instability to isotopes of an odd Z, which in heavier elements requires a completely paired set of neutrons to offset this tendency into stability. The single mononuclidic exception to the odd Z rule is beryllium; its single stable, primordial isotope, beryllium-9, has 4 protons and 5 neutrons. This element is prevented from having a stable isotope with equal numbers of neutrons and protons by its instability toward alpha decay, which is favored due to the extremely tight binding of helium-4 nuclei. It is prevented from having a stable isotope with 4 protons and 6 neutrons by the very large mismatch in proton/neutron ratio for such a light element.
The set of monoisotopic elements overlap but are not the same as the set of 21 mononuclidic elements, which are characterized as having essentially only one isotope found in nature. The reason for this is the occurrence of certain long-lived radioactive primordial nuclides in nature, which may form admixtures with the monoisotopics, and thus prevent them from being naturally mononuclidic. This happens in the cases of 7 of the monoisotopic elements. These isotopes are monoisotopic, but due to the presence of the long-lived radioactive primordial nuclide, are not mononuclidic. These elements are vanadium, rubidium, indium, lanthanum, europium, rhenium and lutetium. See the list below; in two noted cases, the long-lived radionuclide is actually the most abundant isotope in nature, and the stable isotope is less abundant. In 2 additional cases, mononuclidic elements occur primordially which are not monoisotopic because the naturally occurring nuclide is radioactive, and thus the element has no stable isotopes at all. For an element to be monoisotopic, it must have one stable nuclide.
List of (observationally-stable) monoisotopic elements, ordered by atomic number and weight
Non-mononuclidic elements are marked with an asterisk, and the long-lived primordial radioisotope given. In two notable cases, the highest abundance naturally occurring isotope is the mildly radioactive one, and in the case of europium, nearly half of it is.
