Thallium nuclides

The use of cobalt radiation treatments for cancerous tumors was described in Example 26-3. Several other nuclides are used as radioactive tracers in medicine. Radioisotopes of an element have the same chemical properties as stable isotopes of the same element, so they can be used to label the presence of an element in compounds. A radiation detector can be used to follow the path of the element throughout the body. Modern computer-based techniques allow construction of an image of the area of the body where the radioisotope is concentrated. Salt solutions containing "iNa can be injected into the bloodstream to follow the flow of blood and locate obstructions in the circulatory system. Thallium-201 tends to concentrate in healthy heart tissue, whereas technetium-99 concentrates in abnormal heart tissue. The two can be used together to survey damage from heart disease. 

No general statement can be made about the elements that can be determined and the samples that can be analyzed, because these depend on the nuclear characteristics of the target nuclide (isotopic abundance), the nuclear reaction (cross-section and related parameters such as threshold energy and Coulomb barrier), and the radionuclide induced (half-life, radiation emitted, energy, and its intensity) for the analyte element, the possible interfering elements and the major components of the sample. CPAA can solve a number of important analytical problems in material science (e.g., determination of boron, carbon, nitrogen, and oxygen impurities in very pure materials such as copper or silicon) and environmental science (e.g., determination of the toxic elements cadmium, thallium, and lead in solid environmental samples). As these problems cannot be solved by NAA, CPAA and NAA are complementary to each other. 

Each of the following nuclides is used in medicine. Indicate the number of protons and neutrons in each nuclide (a) phosphorus-32 (b) chromium-51 (c) cobalt-60 (d) technetium-99 (e) iodine-131 (f) thallium-201. 

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