NUCLEAR CHEMISTRY
TUTORIAL
1. Write a balanced equation for the reation in which oxygen-15 undergoes positron emission.
2. Determine what type of decay occurs when thorium-231 undergoes radioactive decay to form
protactinium-231
3. Write a balanced nuclear equation for the reaction in which the transition metal zirconium-97
undergoes beta decay.
4. Complete the following nuclear equations
5. Write a balanced equation for the induced transmuation of aluminum-27 into sodium-24 by neutron
bombardment. An aplha particle is released in the reaction.
6. Write the balanced equation for aplha particle bombardment of 23994Pu. One of the reaction products
is neutron.
7. Complete each nuclear equation by filling in the blank space.
8. Manganese-56 is a beta emitter with half-life of 2.6 hours. What is the mass of manganese-56 in a
1.0 mg sample of the isotope at the end of 10.4 hours?
9. If we start with 400 atoms of a radioactive substance, how many would we have after:
a. one half-life? _________ c. three half-lives? _________
b. two half-lives? _________ d. four half-lives? _________
10. If we start with 48 atoms of a radioactive substance, how many would remain after:
a. one half-life? _________ c. after three half-lives? __________
b. two half-lives? _________ d. after four half-lives? __________
Using the graph to the right, answer
the following questions.
11. What is the half-life of each element?
12. Which element has the shortest half-life?
13. Which element is the most unstable? How do
you know?
Use the graph on the to answer the following uestions.
14. How many atoms are in the original sample size of this
radioisotope?
15. How long is the half-life?
16. How many atoms are left after 2 half-lives?
17. Approximately how many days would have to pass for
there to be only 2.5 atoms of the sample remaining? How
many half-lives?
Use the table on the right to answer the
question 18 - 21
18. How long is a half-life for carbon-14?
19. If only 25% of the carbon-14 remains,
how old is the material containing the
carbon-14?
20. If a sample originally had 120 atoms of
carbon-14, how many atoms will remain
after 16,110 years?
21. If a sample known to be about 10,740
years old has 400 carbon-14 atoms, how
many atoms were in the sample when the
organism died?
The table of parent-daughter isotopes shows three different isotope pairs that are used in
radioisotope dating. Examine the chart and answer the following questions. (question 22 – 24)
22. Lead-207 is called the daughter of uranium-235. What does this mean?
23. How old is a rock sample that contains uranium-235 and lead-207 in equal amounts?
24. The age of Earth was first established in 1953 when Claire C. Patterson of the California Institute of
Technology used a uranium-lead clock to analyze rock. In comparing amounts of uranium-235 with
lead-207, he established that about 8 half-lives of uranium-207 had passed since the rock formed.
Using this data, estimate the age of Earth.
25. Iodine-131 with atomic number 53 will decay and produces xenon with the same mass number
whereas the atomic number increases by 1 unit and emits radioactive particle. A sample of
iodine solution containing 138 mCi (milliCurie) of the iodine-131 is given to a thyroid cancer
patient and 12.50% of iodine-131 is given to a thyroid cancer patient and 12.50% of iodine-131
is expected in his blood after 24 days. The patient will be allowed to leave the hospital when the
mass of iodine in his body is less than 4.3 mCi.
a. Write the equation of the iodine-131 decay and list the properties of the radioactive particle
emitted.
b. Predict how long the patient will need to stay in the hospital by determining the half-life of
iodine-131.
