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Nuclear Chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is the study of how the structure of the atomic nucleus influences the chemical and physical properties of elements. It has become interdisciplinary, with applications ranging from the formation of elements in the universe to radioactive drugs. There are three sources of radioactive elements: primordial nuclides present during Earth's formation, cosmogenic nuclides created by cosmic bombardment, and anthropogenic nuclides from human nuclear activities. Marie Curie pioneered the field by discovering that uranium and thorium emit rays and through tedious separation procedures, isolated the new elements of polonium and radium. Nuclear chemistry finds applications in nuclear power, weapons, medicine, imaging, testing, tracing, and dating.

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Wensky Ragpala
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87 views3 pages

Nuclear Chemistry

Nuclear chemistry is the study of how the structure of the atomic nucleus influences the chemical and physical properties of elements. It has become interdisciplinary, with applications ranging from the formation of elements in the universe to radioactive drugs. There are three sources of radioactive elements: primordial nuclides present during Earth's formation, cosmogenic nuclides created by cosmic bombardment, and anthropogenic nuclides from human nuclear activities. Marie Curie pioneered the field by discovering that uranium and thorium emit rays and through tedious separation procedures, isolated the new elements of polonium and radium. Nuclear chemistry finds applications in nuclear power, weapons, medicine, imaging, testing, tracing, and dating.

Uploaded by

Wensky Ragpala
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Nuclear chemistry is the study of the chemical and physical properties of elements as

influenced by changes in the structure of the atomic nucleus. Modern nuclear


chemistry, sometimes referred to as radiochemistry, has become very interdisciplinary
in its applications, ranging from the study of the formation of the elements in the
universe to the design of radioactive drugs for diagnostic medicine. In fact, the chemical
techniques pioneered by nuclear chemists have become so important that biologists,
geologists, and physicists use nuclear chemistry as ordinary tools of their disciplines.
While the common perception is that nuclear chemistry involves only the study of
radioactive nuclei, advances in modern mass spectrometry instrumentation has made
chemical studies using stable, nonradioactive isotopes increasingly important.

There are essentially three sources of radioactive elements. Primordial nuclides are
radioactive elements whose half-lives are comparable to the age of our solar system and
were present at the formation of Earth. These nuclides are generally referred to as
naturally occurring radioactivity and are derived from the radioactive decay of thorium
and uranium. Cosmogenic nuclides are atoms that are constantly being synthesized
from the bombardment of planetary surfaces by cosmic particles (primarily protons
ejected from the Sun), and are also considered natural in their origin. The third source
of radioactive nuclides is termed anthropogenic and results from human activity in the
production of nuclear power, nuclear weapons, or through the use of particle
accelerators.

Marie Curie was the founder of the field of nuclear chemistry. She was fascinated by
Antoine-Henri Becquerel's discovery that uranium minerals can emit rays that are able
to expose photographic film, even if the mineral is wrapped in black paper. Using an
electrometer invented by her husband Pierre and his brother Jacques that measured the
electrical conductivity of air (a precursor to the Geiger counter), she was able to show
that thorium also produced these rays—a process that she called radioactivity. Through
tedious chemical separation procedures involving precipitation of different chemical
fractions, Marie was able to show that a separated fraction that had the chemical
properties of bismuth and another fraction that had the chemical properties of barium
were much more radioactive per unit mass than the original uranium ore. She had
separated and discovered the elements polonium and radium, respectively. Further
purification of radium from barium produced approximately 100 milligrams of radium
from an initial sample of nearly 2,000 kilograms of uranium ore.

APPLICATION OF NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY IN FIELD


Nuclear power
Nuclear weapons
Nuclear medicine - cancer treatment
Nuclear medical imaging
Nuclear remote testing
Radioactive tracers in biology and chemistry
Radioactive dating
RESEARCH PAPER
IN
NATURAL SCIENCE
(NatSc 11)

SUBMITTED BY:
JAN WENSKY RAGPALA
BSAT-IB

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