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Kotz and Triechel, Chemistry and Chemical Reactivity Chapter 25: Sections 4-6.

• 25.4 Nuclear decay rates are used to characterize decay activity. If we start with N₀ nuclei in which ΔN nuclei experience a disintegration in time t, the rate depends on the total nuclei we have to start:
  ΔN/Δt - -kN, or ln (N/N₀) = -kt.

  Here k is the decay rate of the isotope involved.

  If half the nuclei have decayed in time t, this half-life t_½ = 0.693/k.

• 25.5 Most of the several thousand unstable isotopes known today are actually artifically produced during nuclei bombardment in accelerators; they do not occur in nature. All elements beyond uranium-92 are also artificial.
• 25.6 In nuclear fission, the nucleus is split into major fraction parts (not alpha ejection) by bombarding it with neutrons. This reaction will itself produce free, high energy neutrons that bombard other nuclei, creating a chain reaction that ends only when the number of available nuclei becomes too small to sustain the reaction. Nuclear fission power plants supply much of the electrical power in Europe.

Companion Website

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Videos for Chapter 25: Principles of Chemical Reactivity: Entropy and Free Energy

Review the Videos at Thinkwell Video Lessons.

• Under "NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY"
  • Rates of Disintigration
    • Rates of Disintegration Reactions
    • Radiochemical Dating

Homework problems: See your Moodle assignment!

There is no lab for this chapter.

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