A controlled and precise determination of the cross sections of the fusion reactions 7 Be(p, γ ) 8 B and 3 He( 4 He, γ ) 7 Be, which play an important role in determining the solar neutrino flux, necessitates the knowledge of a precise value of the electron-capture half-life of 7 Be. This half-life may depend on the material hosting the 7 Be atoms via small modifications of the electron density around the 7 Be nucleus. In this brief communication we report on the measurement of 7 Be implanted in four materials: copper, aluminum, sapphire, and PVC. The four results are consistent with a null host dependence within two standard deviations and their weighted average of 53.236(39) d agrees very well with the adopted value in the literature, 53.22 (6) d. The present results may exhibit a slight (0.22%) increase of the half-life at room temperature for metals compared to insulators that requires further studies.

Absence of low-temperature dependence of the decay of 7 Be and 198 Au in metallic hosts