Decay chain
A decay chain, also called a radioactive series, is a sequence of nuclides in which each nuclide transforms into the next by radioactive decay until a stable nuclide is reached.[1] There are three "classical" decay chains, which describe the decay of the naturally-occuring actinoids; a fourth long decay chain has become extinct in natural sources, but is known from artificially-produced radionuclides. Shorter decay chains describe the decay of the transfermium elements and lighter non-actinoid radionuclides.
The principle of a decay chain comes from the radioactive displacement law, deduced in 1913 by Fajans,[2][3] Soddy[4][5] and Russell.[6] The original version of the law, which describes the most common forms of radioactive decay, is that
- alpha decay leads to a nuclide with an atomic number two lower than the decaying nuclide, and a mass number four lower;
- beta decay[note 1] leads to a nuclide with the same mass number as the decaying nuclide but with an atomic number one higher.
Actinoid decay chains
Actinium (4n+3) series
| Uranium-235 (α, 7.04 × 108 a) | |
| Thorium-231 (β−, 25.52 h) | |
| Protactinium-231 (α, 3.276 × 104 a) | |
| Actinium-227 (21.772 a) | |
| α, 1.38% | β−, 98.62% |
| Francium-223 (22.00 min) |
Thorium-227 (α, 18.68 d) |
Notes and references
Notes
- ↑ This description applies to β− decay, which was the only type of beta decay known in 1913.
References
- ↑ decay chain, <http://goldbook.iupac.org/D01537.html> (accessed 18 April 2011), Compendium of Chemical Terminology Internet edition; International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC).
- ↑ Fajans, Kasimir Die radioaktiven Umwandlungen und das periodische System der Elemente. Ber. Dtsch. Chem. Ges. 1913, 46, 422–39. DOI: 10.1002/cber.19130460162. Translated excerpt
- ↑ Fajans, K. Phys. Z. 1913, 14, 131–36. Fajans, K. Phys. Z. 1913, 14, 136–42. Fajans, K. Radium 1913, 10, 61.
- ↑ Soddy, Frederick The Radio-elements and the Periodic Law. Chem. News 1913, 107, 97–99, <http://web.lemoyne.edu/~giunta/soddycn.html>.
- ↑ Soddy, Frederick Radioactivity. Annu. Rep. Prog. Chem. 1913, 10, 262–88. DOI: 10.1039/AR9131000262.
- ↑ Russell, Alexander S. The periodic system and the radio-elements. Chem. News 1913, 107, 49–52.
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