HALF LIFE

I. Definition – the time required for one-half of the atom of a radioisotope to emit radiation and decay to the daughter
product.
A. Every radioisotope has a characteristic rate of decay measured by its half-life.
B. Half life is the time it takes for ½ of the original radioactive atoms to decay into atoms of a new element. The
other half remains unchanged.
C. After one half life, ½ or one half remain unchanged.
2
After two half lives, (½) or one fourth remain unchanged.
3 t Where:
After three half lives, (½) or one eighth remain unchanged. n n = # half lives
t1
2 t = time
II. The stability of a radioisotope is indicated by its half life
A. The longer the half live, the more stable the isotope t 1 = half life
2
B. Half lives vary from fractions of seconds to millions of years A
A n 0 A = amount remaining at time t
C. Most artificially produced isotopes have short half lives. 2 A0 = original amount

III. Mass is converted to energy during nuclear reactions.

IV. Carbon-14 Dating:

A. Carbon-14 is a radioactive nuclide constantly produced in the atmosphere.
B. It has a half-life of 5730 years.
14 14 0
C. It undergoes beta decay: 6C → 7N + 1 e
D. During photosynthesis, plants absorb CO2. A percentage of this CO2 is made from carbon-14.
E. When the plant dies, photosynthesis stops and no more radioactive CO2 is absorbed. The decay of carbon-14
continues.
F. By knowing what percentage of carbon-14 a living plant contains and determining the percentage of carbon-14
the once living plant matter now contains, scientists are able to determine how long ago photosynthesis stopped
(how long ago the plant died).
G. A sample of the material is burned to convert carbon to CO2. The CO2 is trapped and frozen with liquid air in
order to measure the radioactivity with a counter.
H. A newer technique would be to ionize the sample and pass it through a particle accelerator. The isotope is
separated by the magnetic field and counted by a detector.

Problems: All radioactive decay follows first order kinetics!!!!!!!

EX1: How many hours would be required for potassium-42 to undergo three half-lives? The half-life of potassium-42 is
12.4 hours.

EX2: The half-life of zinc-71 is 2.4 minutes. If we have a 10.0 g sample, how much would remain after 7.2 minutes?

EX3: What is the half-life of a an unknown radioactive sample if a 66.0 g sample decreases to 8.25 g in 48 minutes?

EX 4: A patient is administered 20. mg of iodine-131. How much of this isotope will remain in the body after 40 days if
the half-life of iodine-131 is 8 days?