Radioactivity and its Uses Susheem Kanwar

The discovery of radioactivity was purely accidental. A scientist named A.H. Becqueral kept in his drawer photographic plates which turned out to be foggy upon developing.He traced this to a uranium ore kept close by.This phenomenon was called radioactivity. It was found that radiation flowed at a rate proportional to the amount of Uranium in the sample. These studies led to Marie Curie suspecting that radioactivity was due to a more active element than U288 present in Uranium in small quantities.She found these to be 2 highly radioactive elements which she named Radiam(Z=88) Polonium. */new slide*/ Becquerel and his followers found that radioactive elements consisted of 3 different components. If we drill a small hole in a block of lead a well defined beam will be emitted. If this beam is passed through a strong electric or magnetic field the beam will be split into its 3 components. Not knowing what these radiations were the scientists named these radiations alpha(),beta(),gamma(). Alpha rays were found by Rutherford to consist of fast moving nuclei of Helium atoms. Beta rays were found to be energetic fast moving electrons. Gamma rays are the pure energy of electromagnetic radiation.

Decay Energies The velocities of alpha particles emitted by various radioactive elements range from 0.98 into 10(to the power nine) cm/sec for Sm up to 2.06 into 10(to the power 9) cm/sec for Th, which correspond to kinetic energies from 3.2 to 14.2 into 10(to the power -6) erg. The energies of beta particles and gamma photons are somewhat smaller but of the same general magnitude. These energies are enormously higher than the energies encountered in ordinary physical

phenomena eg. The kinetic energy of atoms in thermal motion at a temperature of 6000 degree Kelvin is only 1.25 into 10(to the power -12) erg ,i.e. several million times smaller than the energies involved in radioactive decay. Half Lifetimes The process of natural radioactive decay is ascribed to some kind of intrinsic instability of the atomic nuclei of certain chemical elements which results from time to time in a violent break up and the ejection from the nucleus of either an alpha particle or an electron The nuclei of different radioactive elements possess widely varying degrees of internal instability. In some cases(such as U) radioactive atoms may remain perfectly stable for billions of years before they are likely to break up,in other cases(such as polonium) they can hardly exist longer than a small fraction of a second. The breakup process of unstable nuclei is a purely statistical process and we can speak of the mean lifetime of any given elements in just ab out the same sense as insurance companies speak of the mean life expectancy of the human population. The difference is in case of humans the chance of decaying is low up to a certain age radioactive atom have the same chance of breaking up no matter how long it has been since they were formed.Since radioactive atoms begin to die at the very moment of their birth, the decrease in their no. with time is diff. from the corresponding decrease of the no. of living individuals. The no. of radioactive atoms per unit of time is proportional to the no. of atoms available,but is quite independent of the age of these atoms. Uses of Radioactivity Uranium-Lead Dating Uranium is the father of all radioactive elements and the final product of its disintegration is a stable isotope of lead. Consider a rock of Jurassic times. If it has a small amount of Uranium in it, as rocks often do, the uranium would decay steadily and the lead resulting from that decay would be deposited at the same spot. The longer the time since the solidification of the rock, the larger would be the relative amount of lead with respect to leftover uranium. Thus by measuring the ratio of uranium to lead in various igneous rocks we can determine the time of their origin and the age of the geological deposits in which they were found.

Carbon Dating Reaction between a high energy neutron and the nucleus of a common atom of atmospheric N produces an unstable isotope of carbon (C 14) and a proton
0n 1

+7N141H1+0C12

These constantly replenished C14 atoms are oxidized by the atmospheric oxygen and become incorporated into the molecules of atmospheric CO(sub 2).

Since plants use atmospheric CO2 for their growth, radioactive carbon is incorporated into each plants body, making all plants slightly radioactive throughout their lives. When a plant dies, no new C14 is taken in, and the amount of radioactive Carbon in the wood gradually decreases as time goes on. Since the half-life of C14 is 5700 years, the decay lasts for many millennia. By measuring the ratio of C14 to C12 in the wood we can estimate its date of origin.

Tritium Dating Another method of dating objects is Tritium dating. Tritium is the unstable isotope of hydrogen with atomic weight 3. However, Tritiums half-life is only 12.5 yrs. so all age measurements involving this isotope can only be carried out for recent dates. The most interesting application of the tritium dating method is in the study of the movements of water masses, both in ocean currents and in underground water. By taking samples of water from different locations and different depths, we can tell by their tritium content how long ago that water came down in the form of rain.