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  3. Chemistry 417: Nuclear and Radiochemistry

Chemistry 417: Nuclear and Radiochemistry

Course Level: 
Fourth Year
Academic Year: 
2020/2021

INSTRUCTOR:

W. Andrew MacFarlane

OFFICE:

AMPEL 317: 822-6866

LABORATORY:

TRIUMF: 222-1047, ext 6713

OFFICE HOURS:

by appointment

TEXTBOOK:

none

REFERENCES:

G. Choppin, J.O. Liljenzin and J. Rydberg, "Radiochemistry and Nuclear Chemistry" (Butterworth,1996).

G. Friedlander, J.W. Kennedy, E.S. Macias and J.M. Miller, "Nuclear and Radiochemistry" (Wiley, 1981).

 

CHEM 417 (Spring 2016) General Outline

  1. The Atomic Nucleus
    • The Nuclear Model of the Atom
    • Properties of Nuclei
    • Basic Description of Radioactivity
  2. Nuclear Masses and Binding Energies
    • Einstein’s Theory of (Special) Relativity
    • The Mass Excess Δ 
    • Mass and Stability
    • The semi-empirical mass equation
  3. Radioactive Decay and Nuclear Reactions
    • Activity and Decay Chains, Decay Processes
    • Mathematical description of radioactive decay
    • Cross-sections, nuclear reaction rates, energetics
    • Radionuclide production
    • examples: Radionuclide dating, Radiopharmaceuticals
  4. Models of the Nucleus
    • Brief intro. to Liquid Drop, Shell, Fermi Gas and Collective Models
  5. Interaction of Radiation with Matter
    • Types of Radiation, Stopping power and LET
    • Effects in Biological Systems and Radiation Safety
  6. Detection and Measurement of Radiation
    • Types of detectors
    • Statistics of random events
  7. Optional Topics (as time permits)
    • Nucleosynthesis in the universe
    • Nuclear hyperfine probes in chemistry
    • Nuclear energy