EBT 2411

History;
The atom
Nuclear masses & binding energy
 Energy
Energy – capacity for doing work, generating heat & emitting light
Types of Energy
Chemical, kinetic, electrical, thermal,….nuclear, radiant
Radiant energy
May be released by heating of solids, e.g in the wire of a light bulb; by
electrical oscillations e.g in radio or television transmitters; or by atomic
interactions like in the sun.

Regardless of its origin, all radiation can be characterized by its frequency,

which is related to speed and wavelength.
c = λν
c – speed (usually measured in m/s)
λ – wavelength (measured in m)
ν – frequency (measured in Hz)

Relationship of different states of matter, atomic and nuclear interactions

and energy – by supplying energy to a sample of water, the degree of
internal motion is increased to a point where the material is eventually
dissociated into its most elementary components.
Effect of added energy
 History
• 1895 - Wilhelm Rontgen discovered ionizing radiation by passing an electric current through
an evacuated glass tube and producing continuous X-rays.
• 1896 – Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity (he noticed an accidental blackening of a
photographic plate adjacent to a certain mineral) - pitchblende (an ore containing radium
and uranium).
He went on to demonstrate that this was due to emission of beta radiation
(electrons) and alpha particles (helium nuclei).
• 1898 – Pierre & Marie Curie chemically separated the radioactive material (Ra) from the ore.
• Rutherford & collaborators proposed that radioactivity should produce a change in chemical
species and investigated the nature of the radiations in detail.
• They discovered 3 types of radiations – alpha (α), beta (β) and gamma (γ).

Until the 20th century the internal structure of atoms was unknown, but it was believed that
electric charge and mass were uniform.
• 1911- Rutherford’s interpretation of the α-particle scattering experiments.
• He showed that radioactivity, as a spontaneous event emitting an alpha or beta particle
from the nucleus, created a different element. In 1919 he fired alpha particles from a
radium source into nitrogen and found that nuclear rearrangement occurred, with the
formation of oxygen.
 Rutherford experiment

Thin Pb plate – focused

the radiation into a
narrow beam

• α - alpha particles
• r – detector distance from the scatter
• θ – scattering angle
 Rutherford experiment
Observations & Conclusions
• most of the α-particles passed through the Au foil without getting deflected - Most of
the space inside the atom is empty.
• Very few particles were deflected from their path - the positive charge of the atom
occupies very little space.
• A very small fraction of α-particles were deflected by very large angles - all the positive
charge and mass of the Au atom were concentrated in a very small volume within the
atom.
• He demonstrated that the scattering experiments could be explained by assuming that
an atom consists of a positively charged nucleus – nearly all the mass of an atom
resides in the nucleus; the nucleus is surrounded by electrons – in well defined orbits.
• Mass of a proton (mp) ≈1.67 * 10-27 kg ≈ 1.0078225 u
Rutherford’s experiment led to the discovery of the atomic nucleus & measured the size
of the nucleus of the atom .
 The atom
• 1932 – Chadwick discovered the neutron – the nuclei constitution became clearer
(protons &neutrons)
• Rutherford’s atomic model did not show what was inside the positive nucleus.
• In addition to protons, Chadwick realized that there must be other particles because
the mass number of an atom was always found to exceed its atomic number (number
of protons).

• When α-particles were fired to a thin block

of Be, there was a nuclear transmutation
which resulted in the production of
‘unknown radiation’ which was at first
hypothesized to be high-energy gamma
radiation because they were unaffected by
electric and magnetic fields.
• Note: All particles known at the time (electrons,
protons) were charged
 Chadwick’s experiment

• The 'radiation' was projected onto a proton-rich paraffin block, causing protons to be emitted.
• Analysis of these protons' momentum and kinetic energies provided an estimation of the energy of
the gamma radiation.
• However, the energies of alpha particles that caused the emission of the gamma radiation were far
too small to allow for this possibility without violating the law of conservation of energy (energy
can neither be created nor destroyed - only converted from one form of energy to another).
• To determine the ‘unknown radiation, Chadwick conducted the same experiment using beryllium
and paraffin block but provided a different interpretation. He claimed that the unknown radiation
was neutral particles – neutrons.
• He reasoned that a neutral particle could eject a proton from the paraffin by imparting its
momentum onto it.
• Using the kinetic energy and momentum of the emitted protons, he showed that the mass of a
neutron is slightly greater than that of a proton.
 The atom
Constituents of the nucleus:
• Protons (+), mass of proton (mp) ≈ 1.67*10-27kg ≈ 1.007825 u – they
are concentrated at the center of the atom. The nucleus has Z
protons.
• Neutrons (electrically neutral), Mass of neutron (mn) ≈ 1.675*10-
27kg ≈ 1.008665 u.

• The neutron is not a stable particle except when it is bound into an atomic
nucleus
• Free neutron (a neutron that is not bounded in a nucleus) is unstable & thus
decays to form a proton, electron and antineutrino.

• The neutron does not however exist in nature in its free state - either
produced by cosmic rays in the outer atmosphere, or freshly generated by
nuclear reactors.
Electrons: - orbit around the nucleus
• Electrons, mass of electron (me) ≈ 9.11 * 10-31 Kg ≈
0.0005489 u, they carry charge e ≈ 1.60219 x 10-19
coulombs.
• 2 types of electrons: Except for their charge, the 2
are identical
• Negatrons (-) – the normal electrons
encountered in this world
• Positrons (+) – they are relatively rare
• When, under the proper circumstances, a positron
collides with a negatron, the two electrons disappear
and two (and occasionally more) photons (particles
of electromagnetic radiation) are emitted. This is
called electron annihilation, and the photons that
appear are called annihilation radiation.
 Particle Charge Mass

Proton +1 1.007825 ≈ 1

Neutron 0 1.008665 ≈ 1

Electron -1 ≈0

The atom – the basic constituent of matter

A = Z + N (neutrons)
The number of electrons on a neutral atom is equal to the number of protons in the nucleus of the
atom
Isotopes
• Atoms of the same element with same atomic number (Z) but different
atomic mass (A).
• Have same chemical properties but different physical properties (because of
the differences in mass).
Example : Oxygen has 3 stable isotopes, 16O, 17O, 18O & 5 known unstable (i.e.,
radioactive) isotopes, 13O, 14O, 15O, 19O, and 20O.
• Stable isotopes (and a few of the unstable ones) are the atoms found in the
naturally occurring elements in nature.
• However, they are not found in equal amounts; some isotopes are more
abundant than others. E.g. For naturally occurring O atom, 99.8, 0.037 &
0.204% are the isotopes of 16O, 17O & 18O respectively.
• Isotopic abundances are given in atom percent; i.e. the % of the atoms of an
element that are particular isotopes.
• Atom percent is often abbreviated as a/o.

Question
If a glass of water contains 6.6 x 1024 atoms of hydrogen. How many atoms of (2H)
are present? (The isotopic abundance of 2H is 0.015 a/o)
Atomic & Molecular weight
Atomic weight (M) – mass of the neutral atom relative to the mass of a neutral
12C, taken to be precisely 12.

If m (AZ) is the mass of the neutral atom AZ and m (12C) is the mass of neutral 12C,
then the atomic weight of AZ i.e M (AZ), is given by:

Elements found in nature often consist of a number of isotopes. The atomic

weight of the element therefore is defined as the average atomic weight of the
mixture.
Therefore, if γi is the isotopic abundance in atom percent of the ith isotope of
atomic weight Mi, then the atomic weight of the element is given by:

The total mass of a molecule relative to the mass of a neutral 12C atom is called
the molecular weight. This is the sum of the atomic weights of the constituent
atoms.
Example
Given the isotopic abundances of O below, calculate the atomic weight of
naturally occurring O.
Isotope Abundance (a/o) Atomic weight
16O 99.759 15.99492
17O 0.037 16.99913
18O 0.204 17.99916

Solution:
((99.759*15.99492)+(0.037*16.99913)+(0.204*17.99916))/100
= 15.99938

Calculate the molecular weight of oxygen gas.

= 15.99938*2 = 31.99876
 Nuclear masses & binding energy
• The nucleons (protons & neutrons) are bound together by a net force in which the
nuclear attraction forces exceed the electrostatic repulsion forces.
• Nuclear force acts only when the nucleons (protons & neutrons) are very close to
each other and binds them into a compact structure.
• Associated with the net force is a potential energy of binding .
• To disrupt a nucleus and separate it into its component nucleons, energy must be
supplied from the outside.
• Einstein’s theory of relativity: E = mc2
• Therefore, E (nucleus) = mpc2 + mnc2
• A given nucleus is lighter than the sum of its separate nucleons, the difference
being the binding mass-energy
Binding energy (BE)
• The extra energy obtained when the nucleus is assembled from its
constituents.
• The energy required to completely disassemble the nucleus into separate
protons and neutrons.
• Mass defect – the difference between the sum of the masses of the
constituent protons and neutrons and the mass of the nucleus.
• ∆m = BE/c2
• Binding energy is a measure of the cohesiveness of a nucleus.
• Since the total BE of a nucleus depends on the number of nucleons within the
nucleus, a more useful measure of the cohesiveness is the average BE per
nucleon.
 • Binding energy per nucleon = BE/A

Consider the dissociation of 3H

Question
• How much energy (in MeV) would be required to
completely dissociate the uranium-235 nucleus (atomic
mass 235.043923) into its component protons and
neutrons?
mp =1.0078225 u; mn = 1.008665 u; 1 amu = 931.5 Mev/c2
Atom density
• In nuclear engineering problems, it is often necessary to calculate
the number of atoms or molecules contained in 1 cm3 of a
substance.
• Consider first a material such as sodium, which is composed of only
one type of atom. Then if ρ is its physical density in g/cm3 and M is
its gram atomic weight, it follows that there are ρ/M gram moles of
the substance in 1 cm3.
• Since each gram mole contains NA atoms, where NA = Avogadro's
number (6.022 x 1023 mol-1), the atom density N, in atoms per cm3,
is:
ρN
N= A
M