Basically I noticed that for almost all compounds there are thermodynamic equilibriums and all eventually decompose at high enough temperatures.
But what about proton (Hydrogen ion)? Can I convert it to neutron by just heating it up? But then even if I can, what determines speed of conversion.
I don't want my speed to be slow like pep or pp reaction in the sun. Do I have to just heat it more? Is nuclear speed too affected by heat?
And it clearly says for neutron that it beta minus decays (meaning neutron converts) to proton.
But for isotope 1H it says it beta plus decays with energy -782.35 keV. Does that mean I may get neutron by heating proton (Hydrogen), with the only
obstacle being possible slow half-life? Or are there more obstacles?
Also why is pep and pp nuclear reaction in sun so slow? Because of weak interaction? But why is weak interaction so slow? Related to half-life? But
then why are some half-lives of weak interactions (beta decays) faster than others?
Of course I know we have to consider all other possible nuclear reactions during heating of fusion fuels and any matter that interact.DraconicAcid - 8-8-2021 at 13:58
The rate of a nuclear reaction is not affected by heat.Keras - 8-8-2021 at 23:17
Protons cannot be converted into anything else – they are one of the few elementary particles thought to be indefinitely stable in isolation. So an
hydrogen atom is forever stable, and most of the hydrogen atoms we play with today have been created 15 billions years ago during the Big Bang.
Now a neutron can decay into a proton, an electron and a neutrino – that's called ß decay, and it's caused by a very 'weak' interaction. The reason
is that a neutron has slightly more energy than a proton (bigger mass), therefore it is energetically favourable for a neutron to transform into a
stable proton – the excess of mass is used to create the two other particles that escape. That same decay can be observed in bigger radioactive
nuclei. Its probability is very low, though, and that explains why it takes so long to take place, w/r to the 'normal' speed of nuclear reactions.
[Edited on 9-8-2021 by Keras]unionised - 8-8-2021 at 23:52
Protons cannot be converted into anything else –
[Edited on 9-8-2021 by Keras]
Every element in the periodic table heavier than lithium disagrees with you.
Yeah, sure, in stars protons turn to neutrons during collisions. And you can turn back protons to neutrons in neutron stars. But those processes need
temperatures in the range of a million degrees. Nothing you could do yourself – or even on Earth, I suppose.
