Nuclei, bombardment

Neutron activation analysis (NAA) is a technique for the qualitative and/or quantitative determination of atoms possessing certain types of nuclei. Bombarding a sample with neutrons transforms some stable isotopes into radioactive isotopes measuring the energy and/or intensity of the gamma rays emitted from the radioactive isotopes created as a result of the irradiation reveals information on the nature of the elements in the sample. NAA Is widely used to characterize such archaeological materials as pottery, obsidian, chert, basalt, and limestone (Keisch 2003). 

Slow neutrons ( thermal neutrons) are produced when fast neutrons collide with moderators such as hydrogen, deuterium, oxygen, or the carbon atoms in paraffin. These neutrons are more likely to be captured by target nuclei. Bombardments with slow neutrons can cause neutron-capture ( , y) reactions. 

Neutrons from Li + D [accelerated deuterium nuclei bombarding lithium]... 

Capture cross section measurements interpreted by (61.5) can give only a very rough measure of the level density. Many nuclei bombarded by 1 Mev neutrons must be excited by inelastic collisions and the effect of this process is not taken into account in (61.5)- Moreover neutrons with higher angular momenta must make a contribution to the capture cross sections for energies above 100 kev. An attempt at a more detailed analysis of the energy variation of the capture cross section has been made by Margolis on the basis of the statistical theory and unpublished measurements of the capture cross sections of neutrons of various... 

P. Fabre, C. Magnor H. Muraour, Detonation of Nitrogen Iodide hv Fragments of the Uranium Nucleus Bombarded by Neutrons ,... 

In this experiment a week of target bombardment was required to produce a single fused nucleus. The team confirmed the existence of element 109 by four independent measurements. The newly formed atom recoiled from the target at predicted velocity and was separated from smaller, faster nuclei by a newly developed velocity filter. The time of flight to the detector and the striking energy were measured and found to match predicted values. 

Radioactivity occurs naturally in earth minerals containing uranium and thorium. It also results from two principal processes arising from bombardment of atomic nuclei by particles such as neutrons, ie, activation and fission. Activation involves the absorption of a neutron by a stable nucleus to form an unstable nucleus. An example is the neutron reaction of a neutron and cobalt-59 to yield cobalt-60 [10198 0-0] Co, a 5.26-yr half-life gamma-ray emitter. Another is the absorption of a neutron by uranium-238 [24678-82-8] to produce plutonium-239 [15117 8-5], Pu, as occurs in the fuel of a nuclear... 

RBS is based on collisions between atomic nuclei and derives its name from Lord Ernest Rutherford who first presented the concept of atoms having nuclei. When a sample is bombarded with a beam of high-energy particles, the vast majority of particles are implanted into the material and do not escape. This is because the diameter of an atomic nucleus is on the order of 10 A while the spacing between nuclei is on the order of 1 A. A small fraction of the incident particles do undergo a direct collision with a nucleus of one of the atoms in the upper few pm of the sample. This collision actually is due to the Coulombic force present between two nuclei in close proximity to each other, but can be modeled as an elastic collision using classical physics. 

The nucleus of an atom consists of protons and neutrons that are bound together by a nuclear force. Neutrons and protons are rearranged in a nuclear reaction in a manner somewhat akin to rearrang ing atoms in a chemical reaction. The nuclear reaction liberating energy in a nuclear power plant is called nuclear fission. The word fission is derived from fissure, which means a crack or a separation. A nucleus is separated (fissioned) into two major parts by bombardment with a neutron. 

In 1938 Niels Bohr had brought the astounding news from Europe that the radiochemists Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassmann in Berlin had conclusively demonstrated that one of the products of the bom-bardmeiit of uranium by neutrons was barium, with atomic number 56, in the middle of the periodic table of elements. He also announced that in Stockholm Lise Meitner and her nephew Otto Frisch had proposed a theory to explain what they called nuclear fission, the splitting of a uranium nucleus under neutron bombardment into two pieces, each with a mass roughly equal to half the mass of the uranium nucleus. The products of Fermi s neutron bombardment of uranium back in Rome had therefore not been transuranic elements, but radioactive isotopes of known elements from the middle of the periodic table. 

Nuclear fission is a process in which a heavy nucleus—usually one with a nucleon number of two hundred or more—separates into two nuclei. Usually the division liberates neutrons and electromagnetic radiation and releases a substantial amount of energy. The discoveiyi of nuclear fission is credited to Otto I lahn and Fritz Strassman. In the process of bombarding uranium with neutrons in the late 1930s, they detected several nuclear products of significantly smaller mass than uranium, one of which was identified as Ba. The theorectical underpinnings that exist to this day for nuclear fission were proposed by Lise Meitner and Otto Frisch. Shortly after Hahn and Strassman s discovery. 

A radioactive nucleus spontaneously decomposes ( decays ) with the evolution of energy. As pointed out in Chapter 2, a few such nuclei occur in nature, accounting for natural radioactivity. Many more can be made ( induced ) in the laboratory by bombarding stable nuclei with high-energy particles. 

More than 1500 radioactive isotopes have been prepared in the laboratory. The number of such isotopes per element ranges from 1 (hydrogen and boron) to 34 (indium). They are all prepared by bombardment reactions in which a stable nucleus is converted to one... 

Actually, then, by our symbol jjU we are representing not an atom, but a nucleus. Our equation is written in terms of nuclei and particles associated with them. This nuclear equation tells us nothing about what compound ol uranium was bombarded with neutrons or what compound of barium is formed. We are summarizing only the nuclear changes. During the nuclear change there is much disruption of other atoms because of the tremendous amounts of energy liberated. We do not know in detail what happens but eventually we return to electrically neutral substances (chemical compounds) and the neutrons are consumed by other nuclei. 

The heart of the nuclear reactor boiler plant system is the reactor core, in which the nuclear fission process takes place. Nuclear fission is the splitting of a nucleus into two or more separate nuclei. Fission is usually by neutron particle bombardment and is accompanied by the release of a very large amount of energy, plus additional neutrons, other particles, and radioactive material. The generation of new neutrons during fission makes possible a chain reaction process and the subsequent... 

The number of protons in an element s atomic nucleus is called the atomic number, Z, of that element. For example, hydrogen has Z = 1 and so we know that the nucleus of a hydrogen atom has one proton helium has Z = 2, and so its nucleus contains two protons. Henry Moseley, a young British scientist, was the first to determine atomic numbers unambiguously, shortly before he was killed in action in World War I. Moseley knew that when elements are bombarded with rapidly moving electrons they emit x-rays. He found that the properties of the x-rays emitted by an element depend on its atomic number and, by studying the x-rays of many elements, he was able to determine the values of Z for them. Scientists have since determined the atomic numbers of all the known elements (see the list of elements inside the back cover). 

Induced nuclear fission is fission caused by bombarding a heavy nucleus with neutrons (Fig. 17.23). The nucleus breaks into two fragments when struck by a projectile. Nuclei that can undergo induced fission are called fissionable. For most nuclei, fission takes place only if the impinging neutrons travel so rapidly that they can smash into the nucleus and drive it apart with the shock of impact uranium-238 undergoes fission in this way. Fissile nuclei, however, are nuclei that can be nudged into breaking apart even by slow neutrons. They include uranium-235, uranium-233, and plutonium-239—the fuels of nuclear power plants. 

Write a nuclear equation for each of the following transformations (a) 25 Rf produced by the bombardment of califomium-245 with carbon-12 nuclei (b) the first synthesis of 266Mt by the bombardment of bismuth-209 with iron-58 nuclei. Given that the first decay of meitnerium is by a emission, what is the daughter nucleus ... 

These fissioning nuclei (such as 8tP°i2-211> formed by reaction of Bi209 and a deuteron) have a nearly spherical normal-state structure, resembling that of the doubly magic nucleus seP m208, with an outer core of 16 spherons and an inner core of 4 spherons, shown in Fig. 6. The nucleus is excited, with vibrational energy about 25 Mev (for bismuth bombard-... 

Almost every nuclide undergoes neutron capture if a source of neutrons is available. Unstable nuclides used in radiochemical applications are manufactured by neutron bombardment. A sample containing a suitable target nucleus is exposed to neutrons coming from a nuclear reactor (see Section 22-1). When a target nucleus captures a... 

Neutrons readily induce nuclear reactions, but they always produce nuclides on the high neutron-proton side of the belt of stability. Protons must be added to the nucleus to produce an unstable nuclide with a low neutron-proton ratio. Because protons have positive charges, this means that the bombarding particle must have a positive charge. Nuclear reactions with positively charged particles require projectile particles that possess enough kinetic energy to overcome the electrical repulsion between two positive particles. 

C22-0054. Identify the compound nucleus and final product resulting from each of the following nuclear reactions (a) carbon-12 captures a neutron and then emits a proton (b) the nuclide with eight protons and eight neutrons captures an a particle and emits a y ray and (c) curium-247 is bombarded with boron-11, and the product loses three neutrons. 

Over the next several years, Rutherford and other researchers bombarded assorted nuclei with alphas. Boron, sodium, and other elements all produced the same results a hydrogen nucleus. This strongly suggested that the hydrogen nuclei were... 

Biolistics involves bombarding plant cells with tiny (4- am) microprojectiles made of gold or tungsten. These microprojectiles are coated with DNA and are propelled at high velocity from a particle gun or gene gun into plant tissue or cells. In this method, the projectile penetrates the cell wall and carries the transgene into the cell nucleus. 

Transmutation means converting one element to another (by changing the nucleus). The first artificial transmutation was the bombardment of N by alpha particles in 1919 by Lord Rutherford. 

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