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    Transmutation

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    Zakir Hussain Nagthan
    Nuclear transmutation is the artificial process of transforming one element into another through bombardment with high-speed particles. In 1919, Rutherford and his collaborators carried out the first nuclear reaction by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, producing oxygen and hydrogen. This demonstrated that alchemists' dream of converting elements was possible. Nuclear reactions are written with the reacting and ejected particles in parentheses after the reacting nucleus. For example, palladium-106 bombarded with alpha particles produces silver-109 and a proton. Deuterium bombarding iron-56 produces manganese-54 and an alpha particle. Particle accelerators like cyclotrons are needed to provide the high kinetic energy required for nuclear reactions.

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    Transmutation

    Uploaded by

    Zakir Hussain Nagthan
    114 views2 pages
    Nuclear transmutation is the artificial process of transforming one element into another through bombardment with high-speed particles. In 1919, Rutherford and his collaborators carried out the first nuclear reaction by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, producing oxygen and hydrogen. This demonstrated that alchemists' dream of converting elements was possible. Nuclear reactions are written with the reacting and ejected particles in parentheses after the reacting nucleus. For example, palladium-106 bombarded with alpha particles produces silver-109 and a proton. Deuterium bombarding iron-56 produces manganese-54 and an alpha particle. Particle accelerators like cyclotrons are needed to provide the high kinetic energy required for nuclear reactions.

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    Nuclear transmutation is the artificial process of transforming one element into another through bombardment with high-speed particles. In 1919, Rutherford and his collaborators carried out the first nuclear reaction by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, producing oxygen and hydrogen. This demonstrated that alchemists' dream of converting elements was possible. Nuclear reactions are written with the reacting and ejected particles in parentheses after the reacting nucleus. For example, palladium-106 bombarded with alpha particles produces silver-109 and a proton. Deuterium bombarding iron-56 produces manganese-54 and an alpha particle. Particle accelerators like cyclotrons are needed to provide the high kinetic energy required for nuclear reactions.

    Copyright:

    Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    114 views2 pages

    Transmutation

    Uploaded by

    Zakir Hussain Nagthan
    Nuclear transmutation is the artificial process of transforming one element into another through bombardment with high-speed particles. In 1919, Rutherford and his collaborators carried out the first nuclear reaction by bombarding nitrogen with alpha particles, producing oxygen and hydrogen. This demonstrated that alchemists' dream of converting elements was possible. Nuclear reactions are written with the reacting and ejected particles in parentheses after the reacting nucleus. For example, palladium-106 bombarded with alpha particles produces silver-109 and a proton. Deuterium bombarding iron-56 produces manganese-54 and an alpha particle. Particle accelerators like cyclotrons are needed to provide the high kinetic energy required for nuclear reactions.

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    Nuclear Transmutation

    Nuclear transmutation is artificial method of transforming one element/isotope into


    another element/isotope, without which the field of radiochemistry is limited to only
    natural radioactivity. Stable atoms can be transformed into radioactive atoms by
    bombardment with high speed particles. In the early experimental studies, high-speed
    alpha particles from 214Bi (known as radium C) were used.

    In 1919, Lord Rutherford and his collaborators in the Cavendish Laboratory at


    Cambridge carried out the first nuclear reaction between alpha particles and nitrogen that
    is given by

    14
    7 N + 24 He ⎯⎯
    → 178 O + 11H

    In this reaction, a nitrogen nucleus reacted with a high speed helium nucleus to form two
    new nuclei a 17O and a proton. This reaction demonstrated the possibility of converting
    one element into another – a long cherished dream of alchemists. The natural radioactive
    decay and nuclear transmutation both produce new atoms but with one difference; the
    latter involves bombarding the nuclei in question with a high-speed particle.

    The above reaction can be abbreviated as 147 N (α , p ) 178 O . The reacting nucleus is written
    first and then the parenthesis followed by the resulting nucleus. The parenthesis contains
    the reacting particle and the ejecting particle, with the reacting particle first written
    followed by the comma and then the ejecting particle.

    Example

    Write balanced nuclear reactions for

    (a) 106
    46 Pd (α , p ) 109
    47 Ag

    (b) 56
    26 Fe( d , α ) 25
    54
    Mn

    Answer

    (a) The abbreviation tells us that when a palladium-106 is bombarded with an alpha
    particle, it produces a silver-109 nucleus with ejection of a proton. Therefore, the nuclear
    equation for this reaction is

    106
    46 Pd + 24 He ⎯⎯
    → 109
    47 Ag + 1 p
    1

    Check: the sum of atomic numbers and mass numbers are the same on both sides of the
    equation, as they should be.

    1
    (b) In this example, the bombarding particle is d (deuterium, 21H), which is an isotope of
    hydrogen with charge 1 and mass 2. The ejecting particle is alpha (42 α) with charge 2
    and mass 4. Hence, the balanced equation for this nuclear reaction is

    56
    26 Fe + 12 H ⎯⎯
    → 25
    54
    Mn + 24α

    Check: the sum of atomic numbers and mass numbers are the same on both sides of the
    equation, as they should be.

    There is, however, one requirement in this technique. The bombarding particle must
    possess high kinetic energy (high velocity), otherwise it will not split the target nucleus.
    The particles are accelerated in a device known as particle accelerator. There are two
    kinds of particle accelerators; (a) cyclotron, and (b) linear accelerator. You may refer to
    any general chemistry textbook for further information on particle accelerators.

    The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 1908


    "for his investigations into the disintegration of the elements, and the chemistry of
    radioactive substances"

    Ernest Rutherford

    Taken from http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/chemistry/laureates/1908/.

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