The stability of a nucleon in free space can vary; neutrons are unstable alone, decaying into protons, whereas a nucleus can be stable or unstable based on its neutron-to-proton ratio and energy levels. 6 In nuclear reactions, individual nucleons can be affected, such as in neutron capture...
A nuclear reactor produces large amounts of heat from the controlled radioactive decay of elements such as uranium and plutonium. The nuclei of these heavy elements are unstable; they emit radiation in the form of neutrons, alpha and beta particles and gamma rays, becoming more stable in the ...
Moreover, atoms try to become more stable by increasing their binding energy. The nucleon of an iron atom is the most stable nucleon found in nature, and it neither fuses nor splits. This is why iron is at the top of the binding energy curve. For atomic nuclei lighter than iron and...
The reactions which involve the collision of any two atomic nuclei or the collision of one atomic nucleus and any subatomic particle in order to yield new nuclides are collectively called nuclear reactions. Nuclear fission reaction is an example for this. Answer and Explanation: 1 Nuclear fi...
nuclei. When the nuclei are too heavy, they become unstable and, therefore, those isotopes are becoming radioactive. For example,238U emits radiation and decays to much smaller nuclei. Isotopes may have different properties because of their different masses. For example, they may have different ...
Most of the times, daughter isotopes are unstable and undergo further decay. But, sometimes they are stable products. However, the parent isotopes are always unstable isotopes. Furthermore, it is also important to note that the daughter isotope is always a different chemical element than the pare...
Antibonding molecular orbitals have a higher energy than that of atomic orbitals and bonding molecular orbitals. This is because the electrons in these orbitals do not contribute to the reduction of repulsion between two atomic nuclei. Therefore, the stability of compounds having electrons in the anti...
nuclei are stable, there are some elements with unstable nuclei. These unstable nuclei are called radioactive. These nuclei eventually decay emitting a particle, thus changing into another nucleus or transforming into a nucleus with a lower energy. This decay continues until a stable nucleus is ...
Thorium:Thorium is a radioactive chemical element; it has six known isotopes, they are all unstable. However,232Th is comparatively stable, with a half-life of 14.05 billion years. Uranium:Uranium has three main radioactive elements; in other words their nuclei spontaneously disintegrate or decay...
Positron emission and electron capture and are two types of nuclear processes. Although they result in changes in thenucleus, these two processes take place in two different ways. Both these radioactive processes occur in unstable nuclei where there are too manyprotonsand fewerneutrons. To solve ...