Confused about Nuclear Chemistry!!:( (1 Viewer)

[green_appletini]

Hey guys!

I'm really stressed out about this part of production of materials, i haven't even touched acidic environment and chemical monitoring and management..oh gosh! But yeh i just have a few queries about nuclear stuff, so it'd be great if anyone can help to de-stress me! thanks heaps!:

- how commercial radioisotopes are produced?
i'm getting confused cos text books jump between the terms nucleur fission/ nuclear reactor..so if i want to answer this, what do i ACTUALLY say? The charles sturt website gives an example of U-235 and says that "the following example is only one of many possible results of nuclear fission"...so is this happening in the nuclear reactor or what?!?! I'm just sooo confused
Also, under transuranic elements, one of its examples is U-238. So i don't understand...so U-235 is a normal radioisotope but U-238 is specifically a transuranic element or does it TURN into a transuranic element? See...i think i'm confusing myself here!! So is U-238 a transuranic element or not? (or does it TURN into one?!?

- Recent discoveries of elements
I'm really really bad with numbers..so i don't know how much to learn! Do we need to know about this briefly or in detail? It'd be great if someone can give me a guildeline of how much depth i'm meant to go into this dot point!

- Is anyone NOT doing technicium 99 as their radioisotope for medicine? I'm doing Cobalt-60 but everywhere i go they seem to be talking about technicium..so they wouldn't ask about it specifically would they?

sorry bout the ramble guys, any help would be super good! thanks~
marilia xoxo

 

[hipsta_jess]

i dont really remember any of my chem, lol, so im not that much help...but for the last one, if you get a question on it, it will be something like 'for a named radioisotope...'

 

[tina_goes_doo]

Don't worry i'm doing Iodine-131. I'm sure they can't ask a specific question on a radioisotope. Nothing you can't deduce from given information anyway. They can get you to do things like interpret a table, talk about a radioisotope in medicine or industry, or methods of measuring radiation.

How are commercial radioisotopes produced?

Here's a very basic example.

Technetium-99:

- In a nuclear reactor, Mo-98 (a stable isotope) is bombarded with neutrons.

42Mo98 + 0n1 --> 42Mo99

- Mo-99 is radioactive and is transported to hospitals where it undergoes beta decay.

42Mo99 --> 43Tc 99 + -1e0

- Tc-99 has a short half-life (6 hrs) and needs to be used quickly.


There's also a thread somewhere in this forum that has the recent discoveries of new elements. As to how much you need to know on this, probably enough to answer a 6-7 mark question. You decide how much that is.

 

[Xayma]

Transuranic elements have a higher atomic NUMBER then uranium not higher atomic MASS.

Plutonium can and has been found in nature.

2 tonnes of it was found under a river in Africa. Where a nuclear reaction occured as noticied by the large defecit of U-235.

Cobolt-60 is fine, it is used to kill rapidly divided cells if I remember.

Everybody: Make sure you specify Technetium-99m as it decays into Technetium-99, which is useless.

Tc-99m ----> Tc-99 + γ

 

[-Murfs-]

i'm getting confused cos text books jump between the terms nucleur fission/ nuclear reactor..so if i want to answer this, what do i ACTUALLY say?
The charles sturt website gives an example of U-235 and says that "the following example is only one of many possible results of nuclear fission"...so is this happening in the nuclear reactor or what?!?! I'm just sooo confused
Also, under transuranic elements, one of its examples is U-238. So i don't understand...so U-235 is a normal radioisotope but U-238 is specifically a transuranic element or does it TURN into a transuranic element? See...i think i'm confusing myself here!! So is U-238 a transuranic element or not? (or does it TURN into one?!?

Elements with a higher atomic mass than uranium (Z=92) are called transuranic elements. U-238 by this definition isn't a transuranic element. Scientsist have made another 23 elements up to Z=118. They are made by bombarding uranium with alpha particles or neutrons in nuclear reactors. It is also known as nuclear fusion (nuclear fusion takes place in nuclear reactors).
U-238 is not fissable, meaning that it does not split apart when hit by a neutron...instead the neutron 'fuses' with the uranium and a new (transuranic in this case) element is produced (neptunium, Np)

U-238 + 10n --> U-239 --> Np-239 + e-​

Neptunium rapidly decays to plutonium Pu which is much more stable:

Np-239 --> Pu-239 + e-​

Neptunium and plutonium cannot be found in nature. they are artifical elements made in nuclear reactors. They are also both transuranic elements!

For the recent discoveries I just did really general over the ones discoverd in the 1980s+ and went more specific about 118 (it has lots of controversy around its discovery).

I agree with hipsta_jess... they'll let you choose what radioisotope to coose from..

Well hope that helped Good luck!

 

[xeriphic]

Colbolt-60 beta gamma emitter which is used in gamma sterilisation for things which otherwise whould be damaged by heat sterilisation such as medical supplies, sterilised bandages and sugical equipments, it is also used to prolong storage life for food as radiation kills the bacteria/mould on fruit and vegetables