Nuclear Chemistry

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Nuclear Chemistry

• Types of Radiation
• Nuclear Decay
• Half-Life
• Applications
• Big Bang Movie

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A. Types of Radiation

• Alpha particle (?)
• helium nucleus
• Alpha Particle movie

paper
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• Beta particle (?-)
• electron

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lead

• Positron (?)
• positron

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• Gamma (?)
• high-energy photon
• Radiation movie

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B. Nuclear Decay

• Alpha Emission

Numbers must balance!!
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B. Nuclear Decay

• Beta Emission

• Positron Emission

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B. Nuclear Decay

• Electron Capture

• Gamma Emission
• Usually follows other types of decay.
• Transmutation
• One element becomes another.

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Band of Stability

• Atoms give off radiation in an attempt to
  increase stability.
• Stability is determined by the ratio of protons
  to neutrons.
• The neutron/proton ration needs to be between 1.0
  and 1.5

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B. Nuclear Decay

• Why nuclides decay
• need stable ratio of neutrons to protons

DECAY SERIES TRANSPARENCY
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Neutron to Proton Ratio
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Uranium-238 Decay Series
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C. Half-life

• Half-life (t½)
• Time required for half the atoms of a radioactive
  nuclide to decay.
• Shorter half-life less stable.

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C. Half-life
mf final mass mi initial mass n of
half-lives n t/T1/2 t total time
elapsed T1/2 length of half life
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C. Half-life

• Fluorine-21 has a half-life of 5.0 seconds. If
  you start with 25 g of fluorine-21, how many
  grams would remain after 60.0 s?

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Nuclear Chemistry
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• Fission Fusion
• Domino Movie

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A. F ission

• splitting a nucleus into two or more smaller
  nuclei
• 1 g of 235U 3 tons of coal

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A. F ission

• chain reaction - self-propagating reaction

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Critical Mass

• critical mass - mass required to sustain a chain
  reaction Domino Unveiling Movie

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B. Fusion

• combining of two nuclei to form one nucleus of
  larger mass
• thermonuclear reaction requires temp of
  40,000,000 K to sustain
• 1 g of fusion fuel 20 tons of coal
• occurs naturally in stars

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C. Fission vs. Fusion
FISSION
FUSION

• 235U is limited
• danger of meltdown
• toxic waste
• thermal pollution

• fuel is abundant
• no danger of meltdown
• no toxic waste
• not yet sustainable

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Nuclear Chemistry

• Applications

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A. Nuclear Power

• Fission Reactors- control rods are critical

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A. Nuclear Power

• Fission Reactors movie

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A. Nuclear Power

• Fusion Reactors (not yet sustainable)

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A. Nuclear Power

• Fusion Reactors (not yet sustainable)

National Spherical Torus Experiment
Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor Princeton University
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A. Nuclear Power

• Nuclear Power is relatively safe today but when
  accidents occur, the damage can be devastating as
  Chernobyl demonstrated.
• Boron control rods are used to regulated the
  chain reaction by absorbing neutrons.

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B. Synthetic Elements

• Transuranium Elements
• elements with atomic s above 92
• synthetically produced in nuclear reactors and
  accelerators
• most decay very rapidly

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B. Synthetic Elements

• The main Tevatron ring has a diameter of more
  than 0.8 km and a circumference of about 6.4 km.
  It uses conventional and superconducting magnets
  to accelerate particles to high speeds and
  energies.

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C. Radioactive Dating

• half-life measurements of radioactive elements
  are used to determine the age of an object movie
• decay rate indicates amount of radioactive
  material
• EX 14C - up to 60,000 years 238U and 40K - over
  300,000 years

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D. Nuclear Medicine

• Radiation Treatment
• larger doses are used to kill cancerous cells
  in targeted organs
• internal or external radiation source

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D. Nuclear Medicine

• Radioisotope Tracers
• absorbed by specific organs and used to diagnose
  diseases movie
• Show DVD Isotope Tracers

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E. Nuclear Weapons

• Atomic Bomb
• chemical explosion is used to form a critical
  mass of 235U or 239Pu
• fission develops into an uncontrolled chain
  reaction
• Hydrogen Bomb
• chemical explosion ? fission ? fusion
• fusion increases the fission rate
• more powerful than the atomic bomb

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F. Others

• Food Irradiation
• ? radiation is used
• to kill bacteria
• Radioactive Tracers
• explore chemical pathways
• trace water flow
• study plant growth, photosynthesis
• Consumer Products
• ionizing smoke detectors - 241Am