DISCOVERY OF NEUTRONES

JAMES CHAD WICK ( English scientist 1932)

Who Discovered Neutrons?
• Neutrons were first theorized by the New Zealand born British physicist
Ernest Rutherford in the year 1920.
• The discovery of neutrons is credited to the British physicist James Chadwick in the
year 1932.
• He was awarded the Nobel prize in physics for this discovery in the year 1935.
• In the year 1931, two German nuclear physicists observed that when the alpha
particle radiation that is emitted by polonium is made incident on beryllium,
lithium, or boron, it resulted in the production of an unusually penetrating
form of radiation.
• Later, it was proven by James Chadwick through a series of
experiments that these particles that constituted the
unusually penetrating radiation were neutrons.
• Polonium is a radioactive material that occurs naturally in
the earth's crust at very low levels. Po-210 is a product of
the radioactive decay of uranium, which decays to radon
and then to polonium.
• If the neutron's mass was less than the combined masses of a
proton and an electron (1.0078 u), then the neutron could be a
proton-electron composite because of the mass defect from the
nuclear binding energy. If greater than the combined masses, then
the neutron was elementary like the proton.
• The question was challenging to answer because the electron's
mass is only 0.05% of the proton's, hence exceptionally precise
measurements were required
Charge and Mass of Neutrons
The electric charge that is associated with a neutron is 0. Therefore,
neutrons are neutrally charged subatomic particles.
The mass of a neutron is roughly equal to 1.008 atomic mass units.
When converted into kilograms, the mass of the neutron can be
approximated to 1.674*10 10-27kg.
Since neutrons lack electric charge, their mass cannot be directly
determined via the analytical technique of mass spectrometry.
Isotopes
• Thomson is also credited with the discovery of the isotope in 1912.
• An isotope has the same number of protons and electrons as the
original element, but it has a different number of neutrons.
• Every element has isotopes
• Isotopes of an element have the same atomic number, but
different mass number.
• For example, Carbon has 3 main isotopes: Carbon-12, Carbon-13, and
Carbon-14
• Nuclear Symbol or Isotopic symbol shows number of protons,
neutrons and electrons in an atom
ISOTOPE CHART
 Atomic mass

• The atomic mass of an element is the average mass of the atoms of an

element measured in atomic mass unit (amu, also known as Daltons, D).

• The atomic mass is a weighted average of all of the isotopes of that

element, in which the mass of each isotope is multiplied by the
abundance of that particular isotope. (Atomic mass is also referred to as
atomic weight, but the term "mass" is more accurate.)
• Atomic number (Ζ) of an element is equal to the number of protons in
the nucleus of atom. And it also equal to the number of electrons in
neutral atom. {Ζ = p+ 𝑜𝑟 Ζ = e_}
• Mass number (𝜜)= is the sum of the number of protons and neutrons in the
nucleus of an atom. {𝜜=p+ + n𝝄 }
• Relative atomic mass (Αr) or r.a.m.) also known by the deprecated
synonym atomic weight, is a dimensionless physical quantity defined as the
ratio of the average mass of atoms of a chemical element in a given
sample to the atomic mass constant.
• Relative atomic mass is determined by the average atomic mass, or the
weighted mean of the atomic masses of all the atoms of a particular
chemical element found in a particular sample, which is then compared to
the atomic mass of carbon-12.
• This comparison is the quotient of the two weights, which makes the value
dimensionless (having no unit). This quotient also explains the word relative
the sample mass value is considered relative to that of carbon-12
 #Questions
1. Gallium has two stable isotopes, and the mases of Gallium-69 (60.11 %
abundant ) and Gallium-71(39.89% abundant) are 68.926 amu and 70.925
amu, respectively. Calculate the average atomic mass.
2. Magnesium has three stable isotopes. Calculate its average atomic mass.
Using the information in chat below.

3. There are two stable isotopes of chlorine cl-35 (which weighs 34.97 amu),
and Cl-37 (36.97amu). If the relative atomic mass of chlorine is 35.45 amu,
what is the abduce of each isotopes
4. There are two naturally occurring isotopes of lithium Li-6(6.015 amu) and Li-7
(7.016 amu). What is the abundance of each?