NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY

RADIOACTIVE ELEMENT
• An element subject to spontaneous degeneration of its nucleus accompanied by the
emission of alpha particles, betaparticles, or gamma rays. All elements with atomi
c numbers greater than 83 are radioactive.
• Naturally occurring radioactive elements include radium, thorium, and uranium.
• All substance are made of atoms. These have electrons (e) around the outside, and
a nucleus in the middle. The nucleus consists of protons (p) and neutrons (n),
and is extremely small.
 The Father Of Radioactivity
Antoine Henri Becquerel (1896)

 the term radioactivity was

actually coined by Marie curie,
who together with her husband Pierre,
began investigating the phenomenon
recently discovered by Becquerel.
• In some types of atom, the nucleus is unstable, and will decay into a more stable
atom. This radioactive decay is completely spontaneous. The energy that is
released from the nucleus of the atom is radiation.
When an unstable nucleus decays, there are three ways that it can do so. It may give out:-

 an alpha particle (we use the symbol )

 a beta particle (symbol )
 a gamma ray (symbol )
 RADIOACTIVITY – ALPHA PARTICLES
 Alpha particles are made of 2 protons and 2 neutrons.
 This means that they have a charge of +2, and a mass of 4
(the mass is measured in "atomic mass units", where each proton & neutron=1)

We can write them as , or, because they're the same as a helium nucleus, .
 Alpha particles are relatively slow and heavy.
 They have a low penetrating power - you can stop them with just a sheet of paper.
 Because they have a large charge, alpha particles ionize (pull electrons from) other atoms
strongly.
 RADIOACTIVITY – BETA PARTICLES
 Beta particles have a charge of minus 1, and a mass of about 1/2000th of a proton. This means that beta
particles are the same as an electron.

We can write them as or, because they're the same as an electron, , written in isotope
notation as
 They are fast, and light.
 Beta particles have a medium penetrating power - they are stopped by a sheet of aluminum or
plastics.
 Beta particles ionize atoms that they pass, but not as strongly as alpha particles do.
 RADIOACTIVITY – GAMMA WAVES
 Gamma rays are waves, not particles.

This means that they have no mass and no charge. So we sometimes write .
 Gamma rays have a high penetrating power - it takes a thick sheet of metal such as lead, or concrete
to reduce them significantly.
 Gamma rays do not directly ionize other atoms, although they may cause atoms to emit other particles
which will then cause ionization.
 We don't find pure gamma sources - gamma rays are emitted alongside alpha or beta particles. Strictly
speaking, gamma emission isn't 'radioactive decay' because it doesn't change the state of the nucleus. It
just carries away some energy.
 RADIOACTIVITY – SUMMARY
Particles that ionize other atoms strongly have a low penetrating power, because they lose energy each
time they ionize an atom. Therefore, alpha particles are easy to stop and gamma rays are hard to stop.
ISOTOPE
• Isotopes are variants of a particular chemical element which differ in neutron
number, and consequently in nucleon number. all isotopes of a given element
have the same number of protons but different numbers of neutrons in each atom
 ISOTOPE NOTATION
The isotope notation for an atom of uranium-238 is:

 The mass number is 238.

This is the sum of protons and neutrons in the nucleus. (Protons + Neutrons = Mass)

 The atomic number is 92.

This is the quantity of protons (and electrons) in the atom. It also leads to the
chemical symbol for the isotope.

 The chemical symbol “U” is obtained from the name or by looking up the atomic
number on the periodic table.
 NUCLEAR DECAY REACTIONS
• some elements are naturally unstable
• they tend to undergo alpha-decay or beta-decay to become more stable.
• they may take several steps in order to achieve this, thus we observe decay
chains (also known as series decay) for most radioactive elements.
• for example, it takes u-238 14 steps of alpha and beta decay to become
completely stable
 IDENTIFYING ALPHA AND BETA DECAY REACTIONS
Alpha Decay:

Alpha decay is one process that unstable atoms can use to become more stable. During alpha decay, an atom's nucleus
sheds two protons and two neutrons in a packet that scientists call an alpha particle.
Since an atom loses two protons during alpha decay, it changes from one element to another. For example, after
undergoing alpha decay, an atom of uranium (with 92 protons) becomes an atom of thorium (with 90 protons).

The reaction above would be written as: (with the He representing the alpha particle)
 IDENTIFYING ALPHA AND BETA DECAY REACTIONS

Beta decay:

During beta decay, a neutron turns into a proton and an electron. The electron is emitted and is called a beta
particle. This reaction would be written as:
 BALANCING NUCLEAR DECAY REACTIONS
Examples:
222 218 228 228
1. 86 Rn  84 Po + ____ 2. 90 Th  91 Pa + ____

Decay type __________________ Decay type __________________

 DECAY CHAIN OF U-238

• STEP 1: ALPHA DECAY OF URANIUM-238

____________________________________________________
• STEP 2: BETA DECAY REACTION
____________________________________________________
• STEP 3: BETA DECAY REACTION
____________________________________________________
• NOW YOU COMPLETE THE REST ………………………
 FISSION AND FUSION
• FISSION: Fission is the process of splitting an atom.
Is the splitting of a heavy nucleus into two lighter ones

 Fission was discovered in 1938 by the German scientists Otto Hahn, Lise Meitner, and Fritz
Strassmann,
who bombarded a sample of uranium with neutrons in an attempt to produce new elements with
Z > 92.
They observed that lighter elements such as barium (Z = 56) were formed during the reaction,
and they realized that such products had to originate from the neutron-induced fission of uranium-
235:

•
• FUSION: NUCLEAR FUSION IS THE PROCESS BY WHICH MULTIPLE SMALL ATOMIC NUCLEI JOIN
TOGETHER TO FORM A HEAVIER NUCLEUS.
• IN A NUCLEAR FUSION REACTION, LIGHTER NUCLEI COMBINE TO PRODUCE A HEAVIER
NUCLEUS. AS SHOWN, FUSION OF 3H AND 2H TO GIVE 4HE AND A NEUTRON RELEASES AN
ENORMOUS AMOUNT OF ENERGY. IN PRINCIPLE, NUCLEAR FUSION CAN PRODUCE MUCH
MORE ENERGY THAN FISSION, BUT VERY HIGH KINETIC ENERGY IS REQUIRED TO OVERCOME
ELECTROSTATIC REPULSIONS BETWEEN THE POSITIVELY CHARGED NUCLEI AND INITIATE THE
FUSION REACTION.
• NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGY IS THE ENERGY REQUIRED TO KEEP THE PROTONS AND
NEUTRONS OF A NUCLEUS INTACT, AND THE ENERGY THAT IS RELEASED DURING A NUCLEAR
FISSION OR FUSION IS NUCLEAR POWER
• BASICALLY, NUCLEAR BINDING ENERGY IS CONSIDERED AS MASS, AND THAT MASS BECOMES
"MISSING". THIS MISSING MASS IS CALLED MASS DEFECT, WHICH IS THE NUCLEAR ENERGY,
ALSO KNOWN AS THE MASS RELEASED FROM THE REACTION AS NEUTRONS, PHOTONS, OR
ANY OTHER TRAJECTORIES.
 FISSION AND FUSION

Examples:
236 1 1 92 2 4
1. 92 U + 0 n  30 n + 36 Kr + _____ 2. _____ + 1 H  2 He

Decay type _________________ Decay type _______________

 HALF LIFE
• Half-life is the amount of time it takes for half of the atoms of an
unstable isotope to decay.
• For example, if the half-life of a 50.0 gram sample is 3 years, then
in 3 years only 25 grams would remain. During the next 3 years, 12.5
grams would remain and so on.
Nt = mass of radioactive material at time interval (t)
N0 = mass of the original amount of radioactive material
k = decay constant
t = time interval (t1/2 for the half-life)
1. If the half-life of 100.0 grams of a radioactive isotope is 8 years, how many
grams will remain in 32 years?

2. The half-life of zn-71 is 2.4 minutes. If one had 100.0 g at the beginning, how
many grams would be left after 7.2 minutes has elapsed?
7.2 / 2.4 = 3 half-lives
(1/2)3 = 0.125 (the amount remaining after 3 half-lives)
100.0 g x 0.125 = 12.5 g remaining
1. After 24.0 days, 2.00 milligrams of an original 128.0 milligram sample remain. What is the
half-life of the sample?
2. U-238 has a half-life of 4.46 x 109 years. How much U-238 should be present in a sample 2.5
x 109 years old, if 2.00 grams was present initially?
3. How long will it take for a 40.0 gram sample of I-131 (half-life = 8.040 days) to decay to
1/100 its original mass?
4. Fermium-253 has a half-life of 0.334 seconds. A radioactive sample is considered to be
completely decayed after 10 half-lives. How much time will elapse for this sample to be
considered gone?
5. At time zero, there are 10.0 grams of W-187. If the half-life is 23.9 hours, how much will be
present at the end of one day? Two days? Seven days?
6. If you start with 5.32 x 109 atoms of cs-137, how much time will pass before the amount
remaining is 5.20 x 106 atoms? The half-life of cs-137 is 30.17 years.
7. The half-life of the radioactive isotope phosphorus-32 is 14.3 days. How long until a
sample loses 99% of its radioactivity?
8. Rn-222 has a half-life of 3.82 days. How long before only 1/16 of the original sample
remains?
9. U-238 has a half-life of 4.46 x 109 years. Estimates of the age of the universe range
from 9 x 109 years to 23 x 109 years (cauldrons in the cosmos: nuclear astrophysics, C.E.
Rolfs and W.S. Rodney, univ. Of chicago, 1988, p. 477). What fraction of this isotope
present at the start of the universe remains today? Calulate for both minimum and
maximum values, as well as a median value of 16 x 109 years.
10. You have 20.0 grams of 32-P that decays 5% daily. How long will it take for half the
original to decay?