Theory of Radioactivity Disintegration

Rutherford and Soddy, in 1903, postulated that radioactivity is a nuclear phenomenon and all
the radioactive changes are taking place in the nucleus of the atom. They presented an
interpretation of the radioactive processes and the origin of radiations in the form of a theory
known as theory of radioactive disintegration. The main points of this theory are,

(1) The atomic nuclei of the radioactive elements are unstable and liable to disintegrate any
moment.

(2) The disintegration is spontaneous, i.e., constantly breaking. The rate of breaking is not
affected by external factors like temperature, pressure, chemical combination etc.

(3) During disintegration, atoms of new elements called daughter elements having different
physical and chemical properties than the parent elements come into existence.

(4) During disintegration, either alpha or beta particles are emitted from the nucleus.

The disintegration process may proceed in one of the following two ways,

(i) a-particle emission: When an a-particle is emitted from the nucleus of an atom of the
parent element, the nucleus of the new element, called daughter element possesses atomic mass
or atomic mass number less by four units and nuclear charge or atomic number less by 2 units
because a-particle has mass of 4 units and nuclear charge of two units.

The nuclear disintegration process that emits alpha particles is called alpha decay. An example
of a nucleus that undergoes alpha decay is uranium-238. The alpha decay of U-238 is

238 4
92𝑈→ 2𝐻𝑒 + 234
90𝑇ℎ
In this nuclear change, the uranium atom ( 238
92𝑈)

Transmuted into an atom of thorium 234 90𝑇ℎ and, in the process, gave off an alpha particle. Look
4
at the symbol for the alpha particle: 2𝐻𝑒 . Where does an alpha particle get this symbol? The
bottom number in a nuclear symbol is the number of protons. That means that the alpha particle
has two protons in it which were lost by the uranium atom. The two protons also have a charge
of +2. The top number, 4, is the mass number or the total of the protons and neutrons in the
particle. Because it has 2 protons, and a total of 4 protons and neutrons, alpha particles must
also have two neutrons. Alpha particles always have this same composition: two protons and
two neutrons.

(ii) b-particle emission: b-particle is merely an electron which has negligible mass. Whenever
a beta particle is emitted from the nucleus of a radioactive atom, the nucleus of the new element
formed possesses the same atomic mass but nuclear charge or atomic number is increased by
1 unit than the parent element. Beta particle emission is due to the result of decay of neutron
into proton and electron

The electron produced escapes as a beta-particle-leaving proton in the nucleus.

A beta particle is simply a high energy electron that is emitted from the nucleus. It may occur
to you that we have a logically difficult situation here. Nuclei do not contain electrons and yet
during beta decay, an electron is emitted from a nucleus. At the same time that the electron is
being ejected from the nucleus, a neutron is becoming a proton. It is tempting to picture this as
a neutron breaking into two pieces with the pieces being a proton and an electron. That would
be convenient for simplicity, but unfortunately that is not what happens; more about this at the
end of this section. For convenience sake, though, we will treat beta decay as a neutron splitting
into a proton and an electron. The proton stays in the nucleus, increasing the atomic number of
the atom by one. The electron is ejected from the nucleus and is the particle of radiation called
beta.
To insert an electron into a nuclear equation and have the numbers add up properly, an atomic
number and a mass number had to be assigned to an electron. The mass number assigned to an
electron is zero (0) which is reasonable since the mass number is the number of protons plus
neutrons and an electron contains no protons and no neutrons. The atomic number assigned to
an electron is negative one (-1), because that allows a nuclear equation containing an electron
to balance atomic numbers. Therefore, the nuclear symbol representing an electron (beta
particle) is

0
−1𝑒 Or −10𝛽
Thorium-234 is a nucleus that undergoes beta decay. Here is the nuclear equation for this beta
decay.

234 0
90𝑇ℎ→ −1 𝑒 + 234
91𝑃𝑎

(iii) g-ray emission: g-rays are emitted due to secondary effects. The excess of energy is
released in the form of g-rays. Thus g-rays arise from energy re-arrangements in the nucleus.
As g-rays are short wavelength electromagnetic radiations with no charge and no mass, their
emission from a radioactive element does not produce new element.