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Radioactive decay (also known as nuclear decay, radioactivity, radioactive disintegration, or nuclear disintegration) is the process by which an unstable atomic nucleus loses energy by radiation. A material containing unstable nuclei is considered radioactive. Three of the most common types of decay are alpha, beta, and gamma decay.
in physics and biology radionuclide X-ray fluorescence spectrometry is used to determine chemical composition of the compound. Radiation from a radionuclide source hits the sample and excites characteristic X-rays in the sample. This radiation is registered and the chemical composition of the sample can be determined from the analysis of the ...
A nuclide is a species of an atom with a specific number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus, for example carbon-13 with 6 protons and 7 neutrons. The nuclide concept (referring to individual nuclear species) emphasizes nuclear properties over chemical properties, while the isotope concept (grouping all atoms of each element) emphasizes ...
The center of the atom contains a tight ball of neutrons and protons, which is held together by the strong nuclear force, unless it is too large. Unstable nuclei may undergo alpha decay, in which they emit an energetic helium nucleus, or beta decay, in which they eject an electron (or positron). After one of these decays the resultant nucleus ...
The study of proton emission has aided the understanding of nuclear deformation, masses and structure, and it is an example of quantum tunneling. Two examples of nuclides that emit neutrons are beryllium-13 (mean life 2.7 × 10 −21 s) and helium-5 (7 × 10 −22 s). Since only a neutron is lost in this process, the atom does not gain or lose ...
[19]: 461 Heavy nuclei carry a large positive charge, hence they require "extra" neutrons to be stable. [19]: 461 While a free neutron is unstable and a free proton is stable, within nuclei neutrons are often stable and protons are sometimes unstable. When bound within a nucleus, nucleons can decay by the beta decay process.
The end of the stable elements occurs after lead, largely because nuclei with 128 neutrons—two neutrons above the magic number 126—are extraordinarily unstable and almost immediately alpha-decay. [5] This contributes to the very short half-lives of astatine, radon, and francium.
), have two odd–even stable isotopes each. This makes a total of 30×1 + 9×2 = 48 stable odd–even isotopes. The lightest example of this type of nuclide is 1 1 H (protium) as zero is an even number while the heaviest example is 205 81 Tl. There are also five primordial long-lived radioactive odd–even isotopes, 87 37 Rb, [9] 115 49 In ...