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As the name suggests, radioactive decay is breaking up a radioactive element into many ionised particles. Radioactive decay is also known as radioactive disintegration, nuclear decay, radioactivity or nuclear disintegration in nuclear physics and radioactivity.
Radioactive decay is a spontaneous process that occurs because of ionizations. As it is a spontaneous process, it has been noted that it remains unaffected from any sort of pressure, temperature or chemical form. However, except in a few special cases, this might be different.
This insensitivity to all these physical conditions helps the scientists characterise the radioactive element’s decay and the half-lives of that particular type of decay without analysing the physical conditions.
Elements prone to radioactivity due to their chemical properties are known as radionuclides in chemistry.
A radioactive element possesses nucleons that are made up of protons and neutrons.
All the two particles, neutrons and protons, have two types of forces: electromagnetic forces because they are charged particles and a nuclear force that keeps them bound to the nucleus.
In this process, it is observed that when the nucleus is unstable, it loses its energy and starts to emit ionising particles and radiation. The element possessing an unstable nucleus is known as a radioactive element.
The radioactive element breaks into parts:
One part is known as the ‘Parent nuclide ‘, and the other is known as ‘Daughter nuclide’, a transformed atom of a different type due to the bombardment.
The daughter nuclide is also referred to as a decay product.This is because the atoms of the parent nuclide keep on decaying and changing into a new decay product until they reach a stable stage where they are no more radioactive.
The majority of the radioactive elements only undergo decaying for once and become stable as they are no longer radioactive. The radioactive elements that decay more than in one step are known as ‘Radionuclides.’
The decay chain is the series of decay products created to reach this stable state. Each series of decay products are unique. All the decay products that lie within this chain are always found to be radioactive.
It is observed that only the final product in the decay chain is not radioactive and is stable. Some decay products that are found in the decay chain are different chemical elements.
Every radionuclide has a specific decay decaying rate that is known as ‘Half-life of the element.’ The half-life of the element in a simple language is known as the time that is required for one half of the radioactive sample to undergo decaying. The half-life of radioactive elements varies from millions of years to milliseconds.
Types of radioactive decay
The radioactive decaying of the radioactive elements results in the formation of different types of particles known as alpha, beta and gamma particles.
The types of radioactive decay found in nature are alpha beta and gamma decay.
The alpha and gamma decay is governed by the strong nuclear forces and the electromagnetic forces present between them, while beta decay is governed by weak nuclear forces.
Gamma Decay
Gamma decay is one type of radioactive decay, the other two being alpha and beta decay.
Gamma decay is a type of decay in which no change in the element occurs. It is a type of decay from an excited state to a ground state. In this process, some energy is released that is carried away by the photons. The energy carried by the photons also has momentum, angular momentum and parity, and all these properties are conserved.
The gamma radiation found in nature is the product of radioactive atoms. The gamma photons found in the gamma decay are highly energetic because they are derived from the nuclear transitions.
Gamma Decay equation
As Gamma decay is a type of radioactive decay in which there is no change observed in the form of the element, only the dissipation of the energy is observed. It is a spontaneous process, and the dissipated excess energy is directly transferred to the orbiting electrons of the nucleus.
There’s the only type of gamma decay equation. The equation for gamma decay is:
94Pu240 → 94Pu240 + gamma rays
Conclusion
Alpha, Beta, and Gamma decay are the major three types of radioactive decay.
Gamma decay occurs when the nucleus of an atom possesses too much energy. This excess energy is needed to be emitted outside. The emission of the energy occurs, leading to the release of gamma rays and no change is observed in the mass or the charge composition of an element.
