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Nuclear physics

Atomic Structure

 Atoms are the building blocks of all matter

 They are incredibly small, with a radius of only 1 × 10-10 m
o This means that about one hundred million atoms could fit side by side
across your thumbnail

 Atoms have a tiny, dense nucleus at their centre, with electrons orbiting around
the nucleus
 The radius of the nucleus is over 10,000 times smaller than the whole atom, but it
contains almost all of the mass of the atom
 They consist of small dense positively charged nuclei, surrounded
by negatively charged electrons

An atom: a small positive nucleus, surrounded by negative electrons

(Note: the atom is around 100,000 times larger than the nucleus!)

Rutherford's Experiment
EXTENDED

 In 1909 a group of scientists were investigating the Plum Pudding mode

o Physicist, Ernest Rutherford was instructing two of his students, Hans
Geiger and Ernest Marsden to carry out the experiment
 This involved the scattering of alpha (α) particles by a sheet of thin metal
supports the nuclear model of the atom
 A beam of alpha particles (He2+ ions) were directed at a thin gold foil
 They expected the alpha particles to travel through the gold foil, and maybe
change direction a small amount
 Instead, they discovered that :

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o Most of the alpha particles passed straight through the foil

o Some of the alpha particles changed direction but continued through the
foil
o A few of the alpha particles bounced back off the gold foil
 The bouncing back could not be explained by the Plum Pudding model, so a new
model had to be created
o This was the first evidence of the structure of the atom

When α-particles are fired at thin gold foil, most of them go straight through but a very small number
bounce straight back

 When α-particles are fired at thin pieces of gold foil:

o The majority of them go straight through (A)
This happens because the atom is mainly empty space

o Some are deflected through small angles (B)

This happens because the positive α-particles are repelled by the positive
nucleus which contains most of its mass

o A very small number are deflected straight back (C)

This is because the nucleus is extremely small

Atoms & Ions

 An ion is an electrically charged atom or group of atoms formed by
the loss or gain of electrons
o An atom will lose or gain electrons to become more stable
 A stable atom is normally electrically neutral
o This means it has the same number of protons (positive charge) and
electrons (negative charge)

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 Positive ions are therefore formed when atoms lose electrons

o There will be more protons than electrons

 Negative ions are therefore formed when atoms gain electrons
o There will be more electrons than protons

Describing the Nucleus

Proton Number, Z

 The number of protons in an atom is called its proton number (it can also be called the
atomic number)
o Elements in the periodic table are ordered by their atomic number
o Therefore, the number of protons determines which element an atom is
 The atomic number of a particular element is always the same
 For example:
o Hydrogen has an atomic number of 1. It always has just one proton
o Sodium has an atomic number of 11. It has 11 protons
o Uranium has an atomic number of 92. It has 92 protons
 The atomic number is also equal to the number of electrons in an atom
o This is because atoms have the same number of electrons and protons in order
to have no overall charge

Nucleon Number, A

 The total number of particles in the nucleus of an atom is called its nucleon
number (or mass number)
 The mass number is the number of protons and neutrons in the atom
 The number of neutrons can be found by subtracting the atomic number from
the mass number

Number of Neutrons = Nucleon Number - Proton Number

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 For example, if a sodium atom has a mass number of 23 and an atomic number of 11,
then the number of neutrons would be 23 – 11 = 12

Nuclide Notation
 A nuclide is a group of atoms containing the same number of protons and
neutrons
o For example, 5 atoms of oxygen are all the same nuclide but are 5
separate atoms

 Atomic symbols are written in a specific notation called nuclide or ZXA notation

 The top number A represents the nucleon number or the mass number
o Nucleon number (A) = total number of protons and neutrons in the
nucleus
 The lower number Z represents the proton or atomic number
o Proton number (Z) = total number of protons in the nucleus

 Note: In Chemistry, the nucleon number is referred to as the mass number and
the proton number as the atomic number. The periodic table is ordered by atomic
number

 An example of an atomic symbol is:

 When given an atomic symbol, you can figure out the total number of protons,
neutrons and electrons in the atom:
o Protons: The number of protons is equal to the proton number
o Electrons: Atoms are neutral, and so in a neutral atom the number of
negative electrons must be equal to the number of positive protons
o Neutrons: The number of neutrons can be found by subtracting the proton
number from the nucleon number
 The term nucleon is used to mean a particle in the nucleus – ie. either a proton
or a neutron

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 The term nuclide is used to refer to a nucleus with a specific combination of

protons and neutrons

Worked example
The element symbol for gold is Au. How many protons, neutrons and electrons are in
the gold atom?

ANSWER: D

Step 1: Determine the atomic and mass number

o The gold atom has an atomic number of 79 (lower number) and a mass
number of 197 (top number)
Step 2: Determine the number of protons

o The atomic number is equal to the number of protons

o The atom has 79 protons

Step 3: Calculate the number of neutrons


o The mass number is equal to the number of protons and neutrons
o The number of neutrons is equal to the mass number minus the atomic
number

197 - 79 = 118


o The atom has 118 neutrons

Step 4: Determine the number of electrons


o An atom has the same number of protons and electrons
o The atom has 79 electrons

Isotopes

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 Although the number of protons in a particular element is always the same, the
number of neutrons can be different
 Isotopes are atoms of the same element that have an equal number of protons
but a different number of neutrons
o This means that each element can have more than one isotope
 Isotopes tend to be more unstable due to their imbalance of protons and
neutrons
o This means they're more likely to decay
 In the diagram below are three isotopes of Hydrogen:

Hydrogen has three isotopes, each with a different number of neutrons

 Isotopes occur naturally, but some are more rare than others
 For example, about 2 in every 10,000 Hydrogen atoms is Deuterium
o Tritium is even more rare (about 1 in every billion billion hydrogen atoms)

Nuclear Charge
 Nuclear charge is normally stated as the relative charge of the nucleus
o The term 'relative' refers to the charge of the particle divided by the charge
of the proton
 The proton number is the number of protons in a nucleus
 Since nuclei are made up of only protons and neutrons, the proton number
determines the relative charge on a nucleus

Nuclear Mass

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 Nuclear mass is stated as the relative mass of the nucleus

o The term 'relative' refers to the mass of the particle divided by the mass of
the proton
 The mass number is the total number of protons and neutrons in the nucleus
 The nucleon number (mass number) determines the relative mass of a nucleus

Fission & Fusion

Nuclear Fission

 There is a lot of energy stored within the nucleus of an atom

o This energy can be released in a nuclear reaction such as fission
 Nuclear fission is defined as:

The splitting of a large, unstable nucleus into two smaller nuclei

 Isotopes of uranium and plutonium both undergo fission and are used as fuels in
nuclear power stations
 During fission, when a neutron collides with an unstable nucleus, the nucleus splits
into two smaller nuclei (called daughter nuclei) as well as two or three neutrons
o Gamma rays are also emitted

Large nuclei can decay by fission to produce smaller nuclei and neutrons with a lot of kinetic energy

 The products of fission move away very quickly

o Energy transferred is from nuclear potential energy to kinetic energy
 The mass of the products (daughter nuclei and neutrons) is less than the mass
of the original nucleus
o This is because the remaining mass has been converted
into energy which is released during the fission process

 The processes involved in nuclear fission can be shown in different ways as

diagrams
 These diagrams show how the reaction happens in a way that is easy to
understand

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A neutron is fired into the target nucleus, causing it to split

 The diagram above is useful because it shows clearly the different parts of the
fission reaction
 An example of a nuclide equation for fission is:
235 1 92 141 1
92 U + 0n → 36 Kr + 56 Ba+3 0n +¿energy

 Where:
U is an unstable isotope of Uranium
235
o 92

n is a neutron
1
o 0

Kr us an unstable isotope of Krypton

92
o 36

Ba is an unstable isotope of Barium

141
o 56
 The above equation represents a fission reaction in which a Uranium nucleus is
hit with a neutron and splits into two smaller nuclei – a Krypton nucleus and a
Barium nucleus, releasing three neutrons in the process


o The sum of top (nucleon) numbers on the left-hand side equals the sum of top
number on the right-hand side:

235 + 1 = 92 + 141 + (3 × 1)

o The same is true for the lower (proton) numbers:

92 + 0 = 36 + 56 + (3 × 0)

Nuclear Fusion

 Small nuclei can react to release energy in a process called nuclear fusion
 Nuclear fusion is defined as:

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When two light nuclei join to form a heavier nucleus

 This process requires extremely high temperatures to maintain

o This is why nuclear fusion has proven very hard to reproduce on Earth
 Stars use nuclear fusion to produce energy
 In most stars, hydrogen atoms are fused together to form helium and produce
lots of energy

Two hydrogen nuclei are fusing to form a helium nuclei

 The energy produced during nuclear fusion comes from a very small amount of
the particle’s mass being converted into energy
 Albert Einstein described the mass-energy equivalence with his famous equation:

E = m × c2

 Where:
o E = energy released from fusion in Joules (J)
o m = mass converted into energy in kilograms (kg)
o c = the speed of light in metres per second (m/s)
 Therefore, the mass of the product (fused nucleus) is less than the mass of the
two original nuclei
o This is because the remaining mass has been converted
into energy which is released when the nuclei fuse

 The amount of energy released during nuclear fusion is huge


o The energy from 1 kg of hydrogen that undergoes fusion is equivalent to
the energy from burning about 10 million kilograms of coal
 An example of a nuclide equation for fusion is:
2 1 3
1 H + 1 H → 2 He + energy

 Where:
2
o 1H is deuterium (isotope of hydrogen with 1 proton and 1 neutron)
H is hydrogen (with one proton)
1
o 1

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He is an isotope with helium (with two protons and one neutron)

3
o 2

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