SCIENCE 4B- 10

CHEMISTRY
Module 2 – Chapter 18:
RADIOACTIVITY AND NUCLEAR ENERGY

PREPARED BY:
JOBERT PELOONIA NOTADO
Practice Teacher

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

 LESSON NUCLEAR
#2 STABILITY

OVERVIEW

Nuclear chemistry is the study of reactions that involve changes in nuclear

structure. The chapter on atoms, molecules, and ions introduced the basic idea of
nuclear structure, that the nucleus of an atom is composed of protons and, with the
exception of 11𝐻 , neutrons.

A nucleus is stable if it cannot be transformed into another configuration without

adding energy from the outside. Of the thousands of nuclides that exist, about 250 are
stable.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

After going through this module, you are expected to;

1. Describe the forces existing in the nucleus.
2. Explain nuclear in terms of neutron-proton ratio and other factors.
3. Solve the amount of binding energy in the nucleons.

PRE-ACTIVITY #1
Search the definition of the following words on the internet or books. Write this
in your activity notebook (big green notebook).
a. Pion
b. Coulomb’s law
c. Repulsive and attractive forces
d. Stability belt
e. Special Theory of Relativity
f. Exothermic process
g. Atomic mass
h. Atomic mass unit

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

18.2 NUCLEARB STABILITY

Short-ranged Nuclear Force

From the previous lesson, you learned that the nucleus occupies a very small
portion of the total volume of an atom. The mass of the atom is concentrated in the
nucleus because both the protons and neutrons (nucleon) reside there. Thus, the
nucleus is so dense. Its density is so incomprehensibly high that it makes you wonder
what holds the nucleus tightly together.

Coulomb’s Law states that like charges repel and unlike charges attract one
another. You would expect, then, that protons in the nucleus repel each other.

However, in addition to repulsive forces, there exists a short-ranged attractive

force between nucleus. This was explained by Hideka Yukawa, a Japanese physicist.
He speculated that the strong attractive force between the nucleus is due to pion-
exchange as shown below.

1 0
0𝑛 → 11𝑝 + −1𝜋 +𝑟

1 0
1𝑝 → 10𝑛 + +1𝜋 +𝑟

The pions or 𝜋 (pi) mesons are emitted and absorbed at a rate so rapid that
they are virtually undetected. The instantaneous exchange of these particles ( 𝜋 + and
𝜋 −) produce the attractive force that serve as the “cementing force” between the
nucleons. The nucleus, therefore, is thought to be surrounded by a cloud positive and
negative pions.

Pions were discovered by British Physicist Cecil Frank Powell in 1947. He won
the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1950 for his discovery of pions.

In summary, there are two forces present in the nucleus. These are the
coulombic repulsion force and short-ranged attractive force. Nuclear stability is
determined by the difference between the coulombic repulsion force and then short-
ranged attractive force. If the repulsive force exceeds the attractive force, the nucleus

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

is unstable and emits radiation and /or particles. If the attractive force outweighs the
repulsive force, nucleus is stable.

Factors Affecting Nuclear Stability

The principal factor that influences nuclear stability is the neutron-proton ratio
(n:p). A study made on 1000 different isotopes showed that only about 25 percent are
stable. The stable nuclei are found
in a region known as the stability
belt.

The low atomic number

species along the stable region
have n/p=1. The stable n/p value
gradually increases with the
increasing atomic number to a
value of 1.6. Generally, nuclides
lying below or above stability belt
are radioactive.

Nuclei residing above the stability belt has a greater number of neutrons than
protons (protons deficient). To lower the number of neutrons, the nuclei will undergo -
1β particle emission as shown below.

1 0
0𝑛 → 11𝑝 + −1𝛽

Beta particle emission leads to an increase in the number of protons and a

corresponding decrease in the number of neutrons. An example is

14 14 0
6𝐶 → 7𝑁 + −1𝛽

Nuclei residing below the stability belt have higher number of protons than
neutrons (neutron deficient). To increase the number of neutrons, three possibilities
may happen, the nuclei may:

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

 a. Emit positron, +1𝛽 , as illustrated below
1 0
1𝑝 → 10𝑛 + +1𝛽
For example,
38 38 0
19𝐾 → 18𝐴𝑟 + +1𝛽

b. Undergo electron capture. Electron capture refers to the capture or addition

of an electron, usually in the first energy level by the nucleus. The reaction is
given as
1 0
0𝑛 → −1𝑒 + 11𝑝
For example,

55 0 55
26𝐹𝑒 → −1𝑒 + 25𝑀𝑛

c. Undergo alpha decay. Although is not obvious at first, alpha decay increases
the ration of neutrons to protons. For example,
238 234
92𝑈 → 90𝑇ℎ + 42𝐻𝑒

It is also interesting to note that more than 90% of stable nuclei have an even
number of nucleons, while a moderate number of stable nuclei has even-odd number
or odd number nucleons which points to the instability of this arrangement.

nucleons Highly stable Moderately stable unstable

n even even odd odd
p even even odd odd
TABLE 18-2
FACTOR INFLUENCING NUCLEAR STABILITY

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

 Another factor that influences nuclear stability is the presence of magic
numbers. Nuclei possessing the magic numbers are generally stable. These magic
numbers are shown in the table 18-3.

Protons (p) Neutrons (n)

2 2
8 8
20 20
28 28
50 50
82 82
114 126
184
TABLE 18-3
MAGIC NUMBERS

Binding Energy

A quantitative measurement of nuclear stability is binding energy. It is the

energy required to break the nucleus into its constituent nucleons. Studies showed
that the masses of nuclei are always less than the sum of the masses of the nucleons.
For example,

𝟓𝟔
𝟐𝟔𝑭𝒆

mass of proton = 26 × 1.0072766 = 26.1891916

mass of neutron = 30 × 1.0086654 = 30.2599620

total mass = 56.4491536 atomic mass units (amu)

measured mass = 55.93493 atomic mass unit (amu)

Hence, mass loss is equal to 0.51422 atomic mass unit.

Where did the mass go?

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

 In 1905, Albert Einstein, showed that mass of a body is not necessarily
constant as predicted on his special theory of relativity, E = 𝑚𝑐 2 , where;

E – energy
m – mass lost or mass defect
c – velocity of light
This relationship showed that there is interconversion of mass and energy.

In the above example, we can calculate E as follows

𝐸 = 𝛥𝑚𝑐 2

E = (-0.51422 amu) (3.0 × 10^8 m/𝑠 2 )

= -4.6 × 𝟏𝟎𝟐𝟔 amu 𝒎𝟐 /𝒔𝟐

Using the conversion factors,

1 kg = 6.022 × 1026 amu

1J = 1 kg 𝑚2 /𝑠 2

Hence,

𝑚2 1.00 𝑘𝑔 1𝐽
E = [ -4.6 × 1016 amu ][ ][ ]
𝑠2 6.022 ×1026 amu 1 𝑘𝑔 𝑚2 /𝑠2

E = -7.6 × 10−11 J

E = - 7.6 × 10−11 J / 56

E = 1.4 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 J/nucleon

Negative energy indicates that it is an exothermic process. The greater the

binding energy is, the more stable is the nucleus.

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

SAMPLE EXERCISE

4
Find the binding energy per nucleon of 2𝐻𝑒 ; has an atomic mass of 4.002604

amu.

ANSWER

mass of proton = 2 × 1.0072766 = 2.0145532 amu

mass of neutron = 2 × 1.0086654 = 2.0173308 amu

total mass = 4.0318840 atomic mass units (amu)

mass defect = 4.0318840 amu – 4.002604 amu

= -0.02928 amu

E = (-0.02928 amu) (3.0 × 10^8 m/𝑠 2 )

= -2.6 × 𝟏𝟎𝟏𝟓 amu 𝒎𝟐 /𝒔𝟐

𝑚2 1.00 𝑘𝑔 1𝐽
E = [ -2.6 × 1015 amu ][ ][ ]
𝑠2 6.022 ×1026 amu 1 𝑘𝑔 𝑚2 /𝑠2

E = -4.4 × 10−12 J

E = -4.4 × 10−12 J / 4

E = -1.1 × 𝟏𝟎−𝟏𝟐 J/nucleon

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

 If the binding energies per nucleon of different elements plotted against their
mass number, you will get the following graph (figure 18-3)

Can you describe the curve? Did you notice that the binding energies per
nucleon are greatest with mass numbers in the vicinity of 60 (iron, cobalt, and nickel)
and its maximum is at iron-56. This shows that these elements are stable. The net
attractive force among the nucleons is greatest for these nuclei. This explains why
there is great abundance of nickel and iron in the universe.

Nuclei lighter than iron-56 can become stable by splitting apart (fission).

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

ACTIVITY #1

Find the binding energy per nucleon of the following and write your answer in
your activity notebook (big green notebook).

235
1. 92𝑈 , mass = 18.9984 amu
18
2. 9𝐹 , mass = 235.0439 amu
56
3. 26𝐹 𝑒 , mass = 55.9349 amu
31
4. 51𝑃 , mass = 30.9738 amu
133
5. 55𝐶𝑠 , mass = 132.905 amu

ASSESSMENT #2

Write your answer in your activity notebook (big green notebook). NOTE: If it’s
printed you can attach it to your activity notebook. Take a picture of your answer and
submit it in our google classroom.

1. Describe the repulsive and attractive forces found in the nucleus

2. What is the significance of the stability belt?
3. Give the conditions when an unstable nuclide becomes a beta emitter or
a position emitter?
4. What is binding energy?
5. Based on the binding energy value, explain why there is great
abundance of nickel and iron in the universe.

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO

POINTS TO REMEMBER

✓ An atomic nucleus consists of protons and neutrons, collectively called

nucleons.
✓ Although protons repel each other, the nucleus is held tightly together by a
short-range, but very strong, force called the strong nuclear force.
✓ A nucleus has less mass than the total mass of its constituent nucleons. This
“missing” mass is the mass defect, which has been converted into the binding
energy that holds the nucleus together according to Einstein’s mass-energy
equivalence equation, E = mc2.
✓ Of the many nuclides that exist, only a small number are stable. Nuclides with
even numbers of protons or neutrons, (answer this question, send your answer
to our group chat and you’ll be rewarded: It means that the nucleus of element
is stable and thus it doesn’t decay spontaneously emitting any kind of
radioactivity) or those with magic numbers of nucleons, are especially likely to
be stable. These stable nuclides occupy a narrow band of stability on a graph
of number of protons versus number of neutrons.
✓ The binding energy per nucleon is largest for the elements with mass numbers
near 56; these are the most stable nuclei.

REFERENCES:

• Department of Education. “K to 12 Curriculum Guide Science (Grade 3 to

10).” Accessed October 2019.
"https://www.deped.gov.ph/wpcontent/uploads/2019/01/Science-CG_with-
tagged-sciequipment_revised.pdf.
• LRDMS Portal. Science Modules. December 29, 2014. "Accessed October
13, 2019.
• You and The Natural World-Chemistry pg. 400-404
• https://opentextbc.ca/chemistry/chapter/21-1-nuclear-structure-and-stability.
Retrieved on February 5, 2022.

MODULE IN SCIENCE 4B-CHEMISTRY Prepared by: JOBERT P. NOTADO