RADIOACTIVITY

INTRODUCTION
 Radioactivity, a nuclear phenomenon, was first discovered by Henri
Becquerel in 1896.
 Radioactivity is the process by which a nuclei undergo disintegration
and emits either alpha or beta and gamma radiations.
 During the radioactive process, the atom changes its atomic number
and chemical identity. An atom, with unstable nuclei and perform
radioactivity is called radioisotope.
 The initial atom that undergoes disintegration is called parent and the
end-product is called daughter. Radioactivity may be classified as
natural and artificial.
INTRODUCTION
 Natural Radioactivity: This occurs in naturally occurring elements and
isotopes. Certain elements have unstable nuclei, and they naturally
decay over time, emitting radiation in the form of alpha particles (helium
nuclei), beta particles (high-energy electrons or positrons), and gamma
rays (high-energy electromagnetic radiation).
 The phenomenon of spontaneous emission of rays, such as alpha, beta
and gamma by heavy elements having atomic number greater than 82
is called natural radioactivity, e.g. radium-226.
 Artificial Radioactivity: This is the result of human-made processes that
induce radioactivity in elements that are not naturally radioactive.
 Artificial or induced radioactivity was discovered by Curie and Joliet in
1934, when they were studying the disintegration of light elements by
alpha particles. They found that when light elements, such as boron and
aluminum were bombarded with alpha particles, an unstable nucleus
was formed and this nucleus disintegrated spontaneously. The artificial
radioactive substance emits electrons, neutrons, positrons or gamma
rays.
 RADIOACTIVE DISINTEGRATION

 Rutherford and Soddy found that the rate at which a particular

radioactive material disintegrates was independent of physical and
chemical conditions. Their law states that the number of atoms that
disintegrates in unit time is proportional to the number of radioactive
atoms present at that instant.
 Let N is the number of atoms at a particular time t, and dN atoms
disintegrate in a time dt, then, -dN/dt = λN, where λ is a constant known
as decay constant or disintegration constant. Decay constant refers the
fraction of remaining atoms that decays per unit time and its unit is s–1.
The minus sign indicates that N is decreasing with time.
 After integration, the equation can be represented by a mathematical
relation , N = No e–λt, where, No is the initial number of atoms, e is the base
of natural logarithm (e = 2.719). The equation shows that the number of
atoms of a given radioactive element decreases exponentially with
time.
 From next figure, it is found that the disintegration takes place at a very
rapid rate initially, with gradual increase of time it decreases and
reaches zero. Theoretically, an infinite time is required to disintegrate all
the atoms.
 HALF-LIFE PERIOD

 The half-life of a radioactive element is defined as the time taken for half
the number of atoms to disintegrate. From the law of radioactive
disintegration, N = No e–λt.
 If T is the half-life, then t = T, N = No/2, substituting we get, T = 0.6931/ λ.
 The half-life of a radioactive element is inversely proportional to the
decay constant of that element. The following are the half-life value for
some important radioisotopes used in medicine. Radium-226 : 1622
years, Cobalt-60 : 5.26 years , Cesium-137 : 30 years, Iridium-192 : 73.8
days, Iodine-131 : 8.04 days, Technetium-99m : 6 hours.
 The mean life or average life (Ta) is the average lifetime for the decay of
radioactive atoms. It is defined as the lifetime of an imaginary source
which decays at a constant rate equal to the initial activity. The mean
life is related to the half-life as, Ta =1.44T, so the mean life is directly
proportional to the half-life.
NUCLEAR TRANSFORMATION
 NUCLEAR TRANSFORMATION

 ALPHA DECAY:
 Radioactive nuclides with very high atomic numbers (> 150) decay
mostly with the emission of alpha particle, followed by gamma rays and
characteristic X-rays. As a result, the atomic number is reduced by 2 and
the mass number is reduced by 4.
 A typical example of decay is the transformation of radium (Ra) to
radon (Rn). , where, 6.4 MeV is the energy
released in the process, called the transition energy.
 The alpha particle is a doubly ionized helium atom with positive charge
and about four times heavier than protons. The daughter radon is also
radioactive and performs alpha emission. After nine transformations, it
becomes a stable nucleus called lead.
 Properties: Alpha particles are positively charged and cause intense
ionization in matter. The electric and magnetic field influence alpha
particles. They have very short range and get attenuated within few
micrometer in tissue. A sheet of paper cutoff the entire alpha particles.
Alpha is a high LET radiation and gives localized intense radiation in living
organisms.
 BETA DECAY: The process of radioactive decay, in which an electron or
positron is ejected, is called the beta (β) decay. The electron emission is
denoted by β– and the positron emission is denoted by β+ Neither the
electron nor the positron exists inside the nucleus, but is created at the
instant of radioactive decay.
 Properties : Beta particles are negatively charged, and cause ionization
in medium. They are deflected by electric and magnetic fields. The
range of beta particle is higher than alpha and get absorbed by few
mm thickness of aluminum. It causes localized biological effect on living
tissues.
 ELECTRON CAPTURE: Nuclei deficient of neutrons may undergo decay
by absorbing its own K or L shell electron. When an electron is
absorbed, it combines with a proton and converted into a neutron with
emission of neutrino. The electron capture is similar to that of positron
decay. The atomic number decreases by 1 and mass number remains
constant.
 Electron capture creates a vacancy in the shell, which is filled by
another electron from high energy shells, followed by characteristic X-
rays.
 If the nucleus is left in the excited state, it will emit gamma rays. These
characteristic X-rays and gamma rays are used in medical applications.
 Heavier proton richer nuclides likely to undergo electron capture decay
process.
 ISOMERIC TRANSITION: In most of the radioactive process (either alpha
or beta), the daughter nucleus exists in the excited state for an
appreciable time. This exited state is known as meta stable state or
isomeric state and is denoted by ‘m’. The nucleus in the meta stable
state is called an isomer.
 The nucleus goes to the ground state, by emission of gamma photons
and attain stability. This process is called isomeric transition. Thus,
gamma rays are emitted from an exited nucleus and have discrete
energies.
 The isomeric transition of Cs-137 is shown in Figure.
 GAMMA RAYS: Gamma rays are produced, due to isomeric transition of
radionuclei from excited state to ground state. In this transition, there is
no change in the mass number, atomic number and neutron number.
 There is only change in the energy state and no emission and capture
of particles. For example, 55 Cs137 nucleus decays to the metastable
state of 56Ba137 nucleus with the emission of β- particle. Then, it
reaches the stable ground state by emitting photon of energy 0.662
MeV by isomeric transition
 Gamma rays have the following properties:
1. Gamma rays are electromagnetic radiations of shorter wavelength (nm).
2. They have no mass and charge.
3. They are not deflected by electric or magnetic fields.
4. They are highly penetrating, their penetrating power is about 100 times greater
than that of beta particle. They can pass through many cm length of lead.
5. They affect photographic plate/film and cause fluorescence in materials.
6. They cause ionization in matter.
7. They travel with velocity of light.
8. They damage biological cells and molecules.
9. Gamma rays produce photoelectric effect when they incident on solid
surfaces.
 BIOLOGICAL HALF-LIFE

 The physical half-life is the time required for a nuclide to decay to half of
its original activity. It is expressed by the relation T½ = 0.693 / λ, where λ is
the decay constant.
 The biological half-life (Tb) is determined by the clearance of the
radionuclides from the organ, tissue or body.
 The effective half-life (Te) of a radionuclide in any organ consists of both
radioactive decay and biological clearance.
 The relation between the effective, biological and physical half-life is
given by 1/Te = 1/Tb + 1/T½.
 For example, if a
radionuclide has a
physical half-life of 6 hours
and a biological half-life of
3 hours, then 1/Te = 1/6
+1/3, and Te = 2 hours. The
effective half-life is always
less than either the
physical or biological half-
life.