Radioactivity

What are some of the things that come to mind when you hear the word radioac5vity? What is it used for today?
Energy produc5on Cancer treatment Radioac5ve da5ng in Archaeology Steriliza5on and Disinfec5on

Radioac'vity in a nutshell: Unstable atoms try to become stable again. One way they can do this is by giving o maHer and energy. This is what we call radia5on. A material with unstable atoms is said to be radioac've. Three types of radia5on: , ,

Discovery of radioactivity
Radioac5vity discovered by Becquerel in 1896 Marie Curie (1867-1934)
discovered several other radioac5ve elements coined the term radio-ac5vity discovered that radioac5vity can kill human cells invented radiotherapy for cancer treatment

Henri Becquerel

Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the 8me to understand more, so that we may fear less.
Marie Curie

How does radioactive decay work?

What makes an element radioac5ve?
Atomic nuclei made of protons and neutrons Nuclear force keeps the protons packed together Electric (coulomb) force makes protons repel each other For big and heavy atomic nuclei the electric force becomes too large for the nuclear force to counteract and the nucleus becomes unstable MaHer and energy are released as the nucleus decays radioac5vely into a more stable state Radioac5ve decay is a spontaneous and random process
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Types of radioactive decay

When an atomic nucleus is unstable it will decay in one of three ways:
emit -par'cle (alpha radia5on) emit -par'cle (beta radia5on) emit -rays (gamma radia5on)

Types of radioactive decay

When an atomic nucleus is unstable it will decay in one of three ways:
emit -par'cle (alpha radia5on) emit -par'cle (beta radia5on) emit -rays (gamma radia5on)

-par'cles:
are Helium nuclei (He): 2 protons+ 2 neutrons are posi5vely charged travel slowly low penetra5ng power only travel for a few cm in air (short range)

Types of radioactive decay

When an atomic nucleus is unstable it will decay in one of three ways:
emit -par'cle (alpha radia5on) emit -par'cle (beta radia5on) emit -rays (gamma radia5on)

-par'cles :
are high energy electrons are nega5vely charged travel fast medium penetra5ng power travel for about 3 meters in air (medium range)

Types of radioactive decay

When an atomic nucleus is unstable it will decay in one of three ways:
emit -par'cle (alpha radia5on) emit -par'cle (beta radia5on) emit -rays (gamma radia5on)

-rays :
are electromagne5c waves have no mass or charge travel at the speed of light high penetra5ng power no pure sources (& par5cles also emiHed)

Properties of radioactive radiations

All types of radioac5vity can poten5ally damage living cells They do so by ionizing atoms Ioniza5on takes place when
electrons are knocked o atoms (atom becomes a posi've ion) electrons are absorbed by atoms (atom becomes a nega've ion)

A single radioac5ve par5cle has enough energy to produce 105 ions in air

Which type is most dangerous?

If the radioac5ve source is inside the body:

-radia5on is the most dangerous (it is easily absorbed by cells) and -radia5on are less dangerous (less likely to be absorbed by a cell)

If the radioac5ve source is outside the body:

-radia5on is less dangerous because it is unlikely to reach living cells inside the body (it cant travel far and is easily stopped) and -radia5on are more dangerous (they can penetrate the skin and damage the cells inside)

Properties of radioactive radiations

How us radia5on aected in the presence of electromagne5c elds?
+ + + + + +

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Detecting radiation
GeigerMller counter Par5cle detector that measures ionizing radia5on Counts the number of par5cles detected per minute

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Radiation Intensity
Radia'on intensity is the energy per second passing through a given area that is perpendicular to the direc5on of radia5on travel Radia5on from a radioac5ve source is distributed equally in all direc5ons and obeys an inverse square law

1 I 2 r
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Isotopes
Isotopes are variants of par5cular chemical elements Isotopes of an element have the same chemical proper'es
They all have the same number of protons and electrons but dier in the number of neutrons in their nucleus

For example and are two isotopes of Uranium The abundance of an isotope is a measure (in %) of how common that par5cular isotope is in nature Some isotopes are stable but others can be radioac8ve

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Radioactive decay equations

X He + Y -par'cle emission 226 4 222 88 Ra 2 He + 86 Rn
-par'cle emission
A Z 0 A X 1 e + Z+1Y
0 C 1 e + 14 N 7

A Z

4 2

A4 Z2

14 6

-ray emission
No charge or mass so does not produce new elements
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Example
A thorium nucleus decays by emission. What element does it decay into? 228
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Th ?

a) b) c) d)

Radium Ra(Z=88) Ac5nium Ac(Z=89) Proac5nium Pa(Z=91) Uranium U(Z=92)?

A Cobalt nucleus decays by emission. What element does it decay into?

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Co ?
a) b) c) d) Manganese Mn(Z=25) Iron Fe(Z=26) Nickel Ni(Z=28) Copper Cu(Z=29)?

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Radioactive decay and Half-life

Radioac5ve decay is a spontaneous and random process How long do we have to wait un5l half of our original radioac5ve material has decayed? The number of nuclei decaying per second is directly propor5onal to the number of nuclei present in our sample at that given 5me:

dN = N dt

where = the radioac5ve decay constant of the atom concerned -dN/dt is called the ac'vity of the source (measured in Becquerel Bq)

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Radioactive decay and Half-life

Number of undecayed atoms N aner 5me t

t dN N = dt [ ln N ] N = t N 0 N0 0

T1/2 =

$N' ln N ln N 0 = t ln & ) = t % N0 ( N = N 0 e t
Radioac5ve decay equa5on

0.693

Half-life T1/2: the 5me taken for the atoms to disintegrate to half their ini5al number

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Example
A freshly prepared sample of a radioac5ve isotope X contains 1020 atoms. The half-life of that isotope is 12 hours. Calculate a) The ini5al ac5vity b) The number of radioac5ve atoms of X remaining aner
1. 1 hour 2. 24 hours

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Radiocarbon dating
Carbon has a radioac5ve isotope: C-14 Formed when neutrons react with Nitrogen in the air
14 7 1 N + 01n 14C + 1 H 6

Used to determine the ages of carbon-bearing organisms and date organic remains found in archeological sites Age can be determined if we know the C-14 ac5vity in living and ancient (dead) samples of the same organism

#N& N 0.693 t = e ln % ( = t = t N0 T1/2 $ N0 '

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Example
Living wood has an C-14 ac5vity of 15.3 counts per minute per gram of carbon. A sample of 5 grams of dead wood is found to have C-14 ac5vity of 17.0 counts per minute. How old is the sample of the wood? (The half-life of Carbon-14 is 5568 years)

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Example
A point source of -radia5on has a half-life of 30 minutes. The ini5al count rate, recorded by a Geiger counter placed 2m from the source is 360s-1. The distance between the counter and the source is changed. Aner 1.5hours the count rate recorded is 5s-1. What is the new distance between the counter and the source?

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To Do
Read chapter 28 [p.575-598 Radioac5vity] Assignment wk5: Prac'cal DC2
Where? Physics labs (G.O. Jones 2nd oor) When? Friday 15th Feb between 1-6pm (make sure you go at the right 5me)

Hand it in no later than 4:00pm on the Wednesday aNer the reading week - LATE WORK WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED

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