CHEM 406
(NUC E 405)
Nuclear and Radiochemistry (3) Theory of radioactive decay processes, nuclear properties and structure, nuclear reactions, interactions of radiation with matter, biological effects of radiation.
CHEM 406 Nuclear and Radiochemistry (3)
CHEM 406 provides a basic introduction to many of the important physical phenomena in nuclear and radiochemistry and the theories that describe them. The exposition of both experimental phenomena and theory complements the content of other upper-level courses in physical chemistry such as CHEM 450 and 452.
Specifically, the types of radioactive decay are described, and, using this information, the equations that relate the growth and decay, i. e., the kinetics, of radioactive nuclei are derived. In parallel, a variety of types of nuclear reactions, such as neutron capture are introduced and used to develop the equations that governing the kinetics of nuclear reactions, including the concept of cross section. To describe the nature of nuclear matter, the relationships between energy, binding energy, and mass, are developed and augmented with the introduction of related quantities including the nuclear magnetic-dipole moment, total angular momentum of the nucleus, and Fermi-Dirac and Bose-Einstein statistics. A basic introduction to quantum mechanics, including several problems of increasing complexity, namely, the one-dimensional particle-in-a-box, the three-dimensional particle-in-a-cubic-box, and the particle-in-a-spherical box is then provided. The latter problem forms the basis for developing the single-particle shell-model of the nucleus, which is compared to the single-particle shell-model of the atom, namely, the hydrogen-atom problem. The barrier-penetration theory of alpha-decay, Fermi's phase-space theory of beta-decay, and the selection rules for gamma-ray decay are then presented. Final topics include the interactions of radiation with matter and the biological effects of radiation.
Note : Class size, frequency of offering, and evaluation methods will vary by location and instructor. For these details check the specific course syllabus.