Nuclear Chemistry

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In Chemistry, molecules that are unstable tend to react with other molecules. When this happens, lots of energy is released, so the reaction is called an exothermic reaction. The same thing is true for nuclear reactions. Reactions that would tend to change a nuclide from an unstable condition to a more stable condition would also be exothermic.

If you recall from the first installment of the lectures, there was an image that talked about binding energy that looked like the image below. According to the chart, there are two kinds of unstable nuclides; Very small and very large nuclides. There are two types of reactions that take advantage of these two kinds of unstable nuclides and form the intermediate mass numbered nuclides which are more stable.

Nuclear Fission and Nuclear Fusion result from the collision of two particles to form a new element. These nuclear reaction occur where either two nuclei or a nucleus of an atom with a subatomic particle like a proton, neutron, or high energy electron from outside the atom, collide and produce a new elements.

As illustrated in the image below, nuclear fission occurs when a large unstable atomic nucleus decomposes when it is bombarded by subatomic particles (i.e. nuetron) and forms smaller more stable nuclei (new elements). This is extremely exothermic and is responsible for the energy produced by the Atom bomb.

Nuclear fusion occurs when two unstable small nuclei join together to form a more stable and larger nucleus. The energy produced by the formation of a larger atom is more than produced by nuclear fusion and is responsible for the energy produced by the Hydrogen Bomb. Check out this page for applications for Nuclear Fusion and Fission.

Both Fission and Fusion take advantage of instability resulting in an exothermic reaction. The same can be said for other types of nuclear reactions such as: Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Electron Capture and Positron decay. Now, the nuclear equations below occur due to the unstable nuclei of radioisotopes and are known as Radioactive Decay.

Types of Nuclear Decay:

Alpha decay occurs when the nucleus of an unstable isotope has way more protons than neutrons. Therefore, a helium nuclei comes out from the parent nucleus to form an isotope with a smaller mass. This helium nucleus is known as alpha particles.

Beta Decay occurs when there are way more neutrons than protons in the nucleus of an unstable isotope. Therefore, the neutron converts into a proton and a beta particle (mass of an electron) is ejected from the nucleus.

Positron Emission

Electron Capture

Gamma Decay