opfromthestart
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What happens to bonding during nuclear decay?
What happens to the other atoms it is bonded to and the molecule as a whole?
For example, what would happen if in a molecule of RaCl2, the radium decayed into xenon gas? Specifically, what would happen to the
Cl- ions?
Or if in a molecule of 14CO2, the carbon decayed into nitrogen, would it just become NO2 or would the nitrogen escape
or something else?
[Edited on 5-2-2019 by opfromthestart]
College student and hobby chemist
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fusso
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Quote: Originally posted by opfromthestart  | What happens to the other atoms it is bonded to and the molecule as a whole?
For example, what would happen if in a molecule of RaCl2, the radium decayed into xenon gas? Specifically, what would happen to the
Cl- ions?
Or if in a molecule of 14CO2, the carbon decayed into nitrogen, would it just become NO2 or would the nitrogen escape
or something else?
[Edited on 5-2-2019 by opfromthestart] |
Is the RaCl2 molecule in a vacuum, in a bulk crystal or in a soln?
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rockyit98
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most decays produce positive ions instead of negative or neutral elements. those are very very good oxidizers.like alfa particles are so strong
uranium fluoride decay and make F2 gas and trap inside of rocks(only naturally Occurrence of elemental fluorine).
some argument are that Xenon gas is trap inside silicon dioxide like beech sand due to uranium impurity in sand as them form and later decade in to
Xenon.so much so more than in air.
14CO2 is most likely to turn into oxygen gas and nitrogen.
much more interesting one is if we make a diamond out of non fossil fuel precursor (almost all petrochemical carbon is C13 )
C14 will decay and produce nitrogen doped diamond over time.
FYI when comes to liquor before entering market producers must go through a mass spectrometer test to make that all alcohol is natural ,not from
ethylene.
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clearly_not_atara
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It's sort of like asking "what happens to the ocean during an earthquake?". The strong force is about 137 times as strong as the electromagnetic
interaction, and interactions occur within the nucleus or the innermost electron orbital (electron capture), not in the bonding orbitals. A particle
is rapidly ejected, and the electric fields holding the bonding orbitals in place are weakly disturbed by the particle leaving, but the distortion is
time-limited, and the overall effect of the radiation itself on the bonding orbitals is thus quite small.
To be precise, the distortion caused by the radiated particle on the bonding orbitals can be calculated as the integral of the force of the particle
on the orbitals over the time from the initiation of the nuclear decay until the particle is far away from the molecule. This time-scale is
much shorter than a chemical reaction time-scale, and correspondingly, the distortion is small.
So, the short version is, what happens is the nucleus changes, and the emitted particle leaves at roughly the speed of light. Any beta particles
emitted do not become part of the electron shell of the new molecule. So CO2 would not become NO2, but rather NO2+.
A particularly cute example of this phenomenon is the synthesis of the perbromate ion. This was actually the first successful synthesis of
perbromates, which are incredibly unstable. Later syntheses use F2.
83SeO42- >> 83BrO4- + β-
Note that the beta particle is just an electron, but it cannot stick around to reduce perbromate because it leaves with thousands of electron-volts of
energy -- and the redox potential of BrO4- is just 2.5 volts!
So, in RaCl2, this happens:
226RaCl2 >> α2+ + 222RnCl22-
222RnCl22- >> 222Rn + 2Cl-
Again, the alpha particle is long gone before anything happens to the chloride ions. Chlorine of course cannot oxidize helium under "normal"
conditions.
[Edited on 2-5-2019 by clearly_not_atara]
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Fulmen
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Sounds very reasonable. I came to the same conclusion just based on a somewhat rudimentary understanding of nuclear and chemical reactions.
We're not banging rocks together here. We know how to put a man back together.
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CharlieA
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@opfromthestart: Interesting discussion. I have never considered the original question. I have learned something, but I also should pursue this.
Thanks for starting this discussion.
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woelen
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@clearly_not_atara: Very good answer, which sounds perfectly plausible.
I have one little remark. Perbromate ion is not incredibly unstable. It actually is quite stable. Of the oxohalogen ions, only perchlorate is less
reactive than perbromate. It is not the high instability of perbromate ion which eluded chemists in making it, but finding a suitable pathway to
perbromate ion was the problem.
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