Nitrogen atom disintegration

The decay of radiocarbon (see Fig. 61) into nitrogen-14 proceeds at a constant rate, and its half-life is 5730 + 40 years (see Textbox 14). This means that in any material containing carbon, some radiocarbon atoms disintegrate before 5730 years have elapsed and others later after 5730 + 40 years have elapsed, however, only half of the original atoms of the carbon-14... 

In this reaction a neutron is captured by the nitrogen nucleus and a proton is emitted. The C nucleus contains six protons and eight neutrons. The excess of neutrons results in instability of the C nucleus (this may be compared with C whose nucleus contains six protons and seven neutrons and is stable). The unstable C nucleus can become stable by disintegrating one neutron. This disintegration yields one proton, which remains within the nucleus converting the carbon atom (six protons) into a nitrogen atom (seven protons), and one electron or (3 particle, which is emitted. 

Transmutation is the conversion of one element into another by either natural or artificial means. Transmutation occurs spontaneously in natural radioactive disintegrations. Alchemists tried for centuries to convert lead and mercury into gold by artificial means, but transmutation by artificial means was not achieved until 1919, when Ernest Rutherford succeeded in bombarding the nuclei of nitrogen atoms with alpha particles and produced oxygen nuclides and protons. The nuclear equation for this transmutation can be written as... 

Figure 11.11 The apparatus that Rutherford used to show that nitrogen atoms were being disintegrated by alpha particles...

By this time, Rutherford had evidence that hydrogen nuclei could come from more complex nuclei (56). In 1919, he reported an anomalous effect when he subjected diy air to a particles H atoms seemed to be produced even when there was no hydrogen in the system Rutherford correctly interpreted the presence of H nuclei as a sign that the a particles caused some sort of transmutation, and that the H nuclei were fragments of that reaction. I infer from Rutherford s use of the term disintegration that he pictured the reaction as an induced fission of nitrogen. In fact, the reaction was + He — + H. Rutherford and his associates... 

Thus ammonium, NH4, would, if it could be tested, yield two atomic numbers, namely those of hydrogen and nitrogen. Despite its resemblance in combination to an alkali metal, it is not an element. Radium, on the other hand, yields only one atomic number, despite the fact that upon disintegration other elements are obtained from it it is an element, therefore, and not a compound. 

Two additional intermediates formed by loss of nitrogen from N-unsubstituted diazoazoles have been mentioned but no dual properties noted. Thermolysis of the diazotetrazole 665 has been suggested to proceed via the carbene 666 which disintegrates to atomic carbon and nitrogen, while a radical intermediate (667 ) is preferred, but not actually proposed, to rationalize the products of photolysis of the diazoimidazole 668. ... 

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