Cosmic/Nuclear Chemistry

Cosmic Chemistry is the studying of the different elements that make up our universe and how they are created. The components of the different elements are made up through fusion where particles are forced together to create a different formation of atoms, and thus a new element. Cosmic and nuclear chemistry is also used to study organic matter and expansion of our knowledge of the solar system.

A portion of the unit that I would like to focus on is radioactive decay. Radioactive decay is the spontaneous disintegration of a nucleus into a slightly lighter and more stable nucleus. There are different types of radioactive decay including alpha decay, beta decay, positron emission, electron capture, and gamma emission. Alpha decay is when a nucleus is too large and so an alpha particle (Helium atom) is released. Beta decay is when atoms are unstable because they have too many neutrons compared to protons. A beta particle is where a neutron is converted into a proton and an electron and then the electron gets expelled from the nucleus. Positron emission is when atoms are unstable because they have too many protons. A proton can be converted into a neutron by emitting a positron, which is a particle with the same mass as an electron, but with a positive charge. An electron capture is when a nucleus is unstable because it has too many protons and so an inner orbital electrons get 'captured' by the nucleus and combines with a neutron to form a proton. Finally, gamma emission occurs after other types of decay while gamma rays are emitted from the nucleus. There are pictures of these concepts below to explain it slightly more in depth.

Reflection

Two things that I think went really well for me during this unit were being able to easily identify components of an atom and being able to understand the variants of radioactive decay. For identifying components of an atom, I was able to be able to find different solutions based on knowing some of the following information: proton number, neutron number, electron number, atomic number, and mass. For knowing the different types of radioactive decay, this was helpful when we would need to identify and solve for alpha, beta, and gamma decay. Those are two aspects of this project where I think I did better than other parts.

Two things that I struggled more on were the different atomic models and nuclear binding energy (going along with mass defect). For atomic models, I always seemed to forget the different kinds of models and which scientist had made those discoveries and what the different models were called and what they consisted. For nuclear binding energy, I knew the equations and math that went along with it, and I would get an answer generally close to the correct answer, but my answer always seemed to be slightly different, which makes me wonder what I need to work on for nuclear binding energy. Overall I think the unit went really well for me, and these were just a few things that were more challenging for me.