RADIOACTIVITY

DR TIMA NASSIR
RADIOLOGIST
LECTURE 4
LEARNING OUTCOMES

• At the end of this lecture, the student is expected to:

ØDescribe radioactivity qualitatively.
ØDescribe radiation particles.
ØDescribe radioactive decay processes and schemes.
INTRODUCTION
• In our last lecture,
Ø We introduced the stability curve of the
nuclides as shown in Fig. beside, where

Ø We saw that stability of a nucleus

depends on the ratio of Z to N.

• Nuclei are divided into 2-groups:

Ø Non-radioactive – are stable atoms, and

Ø Radioactive – are unstable atoms.

RADIOACTIVITY

— Radioactivity
ØWas discovered in 1896 by a French physicist called Henri Becquerel, just one year
after the discovery of x-ray by Roentgen in 1895, where
ØHe noticed accidentally the strange radiation emanating from uranium salts, and

Ø He had a skin burn when he carried a radioactive sample od U-salt in his shirt pocket,
which

ØWas the first bio-effect of this mysterious radiation to be noticed.

RADIOACTIVITY

• The over 100 elements, which

ØHave about 2,450 known isotopes, and
ØUnstable isotopes lie above or below the Nuclear Stability Curve.

• The unstable isotopes attempt to reach stability curve thro’

ØFission - splitting of large nucleus into smaller fragments
ØRadioactivity - emitting particles and/or radiation.
RADIOACTIVITY
— Radioactivity
Ø Is defined as the spontaneous emission of particles and/or energy from unstable isotopes,
and

Ø Is also referred by other names such as radioactive isotopes or radioisotopes or radionuclide.

— Out of the 2,450 known isotopes,

Ø About 300 occur naturally and
Ø The remaining (2,150) are man-made or produced artificially, which were produced after
World War II.
DECAY
— Radioactivity
Ø Is the process used by unstable nuclei to achieve a stable configuration, by
rearranging its nucleus and
Ø This process is called Nuclei Decay or Disintegration, and
Ø Is accompanied by the release of particle and/or radiations.

— Radioactive decay
Ø Yields a new nuclei which can be radioactive also or stable and
Ø If it is radioactive, it will undergo chain decay till a stable nuclide is obtained.
RADIOACTIVE DECAY

— In radioactive decay process,

Ø Unstable nucleus rearranges and is converted into a new nuclei or atom and

Ø The original unstable atom is called the parent atom, while

Ø The new atom or nuclei is called the daughter atom, and

o Daughter has higher binding energy per nucleon than the parent atom because of
ejection of some nucleons.
METHODS OF RADIOACTIVE DECAY
• To understand the radioactive decay processes,
Ø We consider a hypothetical nucleus that can undergo many of the major forms of radioactive
decay as shown in Fig., where
Ø We can identify several possible decay modes:
o Alpha-decay.
o Beta-plus decay,
o Beta-minus decay,
o Gamma-decay, and
o Spontaneous fission.
SPONTANEOUS DECAY
— Spontaneous decay mode
ØIs a very destructive process, because
ØIt is a decay process where the atom is split into 2 or 3 smaller fragments and
ØIt occurs mostly in heavy nuclei splitting into smaller atoms and releasing some
neutrons.

— The fragments produced

ØForm new nuclei which are usually radioactive, hence
ØUndergoes chain decay till stable end product is reached.
SPONTANEOUS DECAY
— Spontaneous decay is the process that occurs in nuclear reactors, which are used
ØFor production of radioisotopes in medicine and

ØFor production of electricity in nuclear power plants, and

ØIn nuclear weaponry.

— The process is not of great interest to medical professionals, except

ØIn in the production of radiopharmaceutical in nuclear medicine and

ØWe shall discuss it under radioisotopes generators .

DECAY MODES FOR MEDICAL APPLICATIONS
• Import modes for medical applications (NM) are:
Ø Alpha particles,

Ø Beta particles,

Ø Positron, and

Ø Isomeric transition.

• The two NM imaging techniques are:

Ø Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and

Ø The Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT).

ALPHA DECAY

• Alpha (a) particle

ØIs actually a helium-4 nucleus (4He2+) and
ØAlpha decay is the spontaneous emission of an alpha particle from the
nucleus.

• In a-decay process,
Ø4-particles leave the nucleus of the atom as an assembly, hence
ØTwo protons (2p) and two neutrons (2N) leave the nucleus.
ALPHA DECAY
• Alpha decay
Ø Occurs with heavy nuclides (Z > 82) mostly, where

Ø The proton to neutron ratio is large, and

Ø Hence, it reduces proton-neutron ratio in parent atom bringing it to more stable

configuration, and

Ø Is often followed by gamma and characteristic x-ray emission.

ALPHA DECAY
• In alpha decay,
ØThe A-number of the parent nucleus is reduced by 4 and Z-number is
reduced by 2, as per the following general equation:
A
Z X® A-4
Z-2Y + He + g
4
2
2+

• An example of a-decay occurs in uranium-238 nucleus:

238
92
U® Th + He
234
90
4
2
2+

ØThe daughter is thorium-234, which is also radioactive and will undergo

further decay reaction.
HAZARDS OF ALPHA PARTICLES
— The a-particle is harmful to human bodies because of its physical characteristics:
Ø It is massive, i.e. has a large mass hence carry large amount of energy, and
Ø It carries a double positive charge, hence
Ø When it collides with the human body, it causes substantial destruction on tissue molecule it
interact with because,
o In an attempt to slow down, it deposits a large amount of energy to the body tissue (large dose)
and
o In addition, it attracts two electrons from nearby tissue atoms to become a neutral helium atom
hence causes ionization of atoms.
BETA DECAY
— There are three common forms of beta decay:
1. Electron Emission,
2. Positron Emission and
3. Electron Capture.
— An electron and positron have got the same mass but opposite electric
charge, where
ØElectron – negatively charged
ØPositron – positively charged.
BETA DECAY

— Beta decay
Ø Occurs when a nucleus has too many protons or neutrons hence
ØOne particle is converted into the other.
— After decay process,
ØThe atomic mass, A remains unchanged but
ØThe atomic number, Z, either increases or decreases depending on
which one particles are more:
BETA MINUS DECAY

• Beta (b-) minus decay (or simply beta decay)

ØInvolve the emission of the ordinary electron and
ØOccurs in nuclei with excess neutrons.

• During the decay,

ØA neutron is converted into a proton with the emission of an electron as
shown below:
1
0 n® H+ e
1
1
0
-1
BETA MINUS DECAY
• In beta minus (b-)decay,
ØThe A-number remain the same but
ØThe Z-number increases by one, as per the following general equation:

A
Z X® Y + β + n + g
A
Z +1
0 -
-1
BETA MINUS DECAY

• The emitted electron is referred as beta-minus in order to emphasize

the fact that
Ø The emitted particle (electron) carries a negative charge.

• Example of beta decay

ØIs the disintegration iodine-131 used in the treatment of thyroid gland cancer:

131
53
I® Xe+ b
131
54
o
-1
-
POSITRON DECAY
— Positron decay is also known as beta-plus (b+) decay and
ØOccurs in nuclei with excess protons, where

ØA proton is converted into a neutron , and a positron (positively charge electron) as

per the following equation:

p ®n +e
+ o +

ØThe emitted electron is referred to as beta-plus in order to emphasize the fact that it
carries a positive charge.
POSITRON DECAY

• In positron decay,
ØThe A-number does not change but Z-number decreases by one as per the
following general equation:
A
Z
X® Y + β + n + g
A
Z-1
0
1
+
FATE OF POSITRON
• The positron produced
Ø Is annihilated immediately by combining with free electron and

Ø Emits two gamma photons (each of energy 0.511 MeV) in opposite direction to conserve
momentum, as shown below, and

Ø Is what is used in PET imaging modality.

ELECTRON CAPTURE
— Electron capture
Ø Is an alternative decay process to positron decay for neutron-deficient radionuclides,
and
Ø Occurs when an inner orbital electron (usually K-shell but rarely L-shell) is captured
by the nucleus of the atom.
Ø It is also referred as internal conversion, or K-capture, and
Ø The captured electron combines with a proton in the nucleus to form a neutron as
per the reaction equation: - +
e +p ®n o
ELECTRON CAPTURE
ELECTROM CAPTURE
• The captured electron
Ø Creates a vacancy in the K-shell, and make an atom unhappy and

Ø Hence, electrons in higher energy shells cascade down to fill the voids created in inner shells and

Ø In the process, characteristic x-rays are produced as shown below.

ISOMETRIC DECAY (GAMMA DECAY)

— Isometric decay or isomeric transaction

Ø Is also called gamma decay, and

Ø Occurs in decay processes where the daughter is formed at excited state and

Ø Gamma rays are emitted as the daughter transitions from the excited state to a lower-energy
state or ground state.

— Note that Some excited states

Ø Some excited states may have half-lives ranging from very small value up to more than 600
years.
ISOMETRIC TRANSITION

• In gamma decay,
ØNo changes occur in both A and Z, hence
ØThe parent and daughter are isomers.
ØThe general decay equation is given below.
Am
Z
X® X+g A
Z
ATOMIC ENERGY LEVELS
• Rutherford and Bohr discovered that,
Ø The electrons in an atom can only exist in well defined orbits or shells, each with a specific energy
level.
Ø Each shell can only hold a certain number of electrons and
Ø As more electrons are added, they must exist in higher energy levels as the lower shells become
full.

• The number of electrons in the outermost occupied shell

Ø Is called valence electrons and
Ø Determines the chemical reaction of the atom.
ATOMIC ENERGY LEVELS
• The orbits or shells are usually represented
Ø By horizontal lines called energy levels and

Ø Except for the K-shell, others shells split into 2 or more lines called degeneration as

shown below.
DECAY SCHEMES
• Each radionuclide
Ø Has a unique or characteristic decay process and

Ø Manufacturers of radionuclides used in NM provide diagrams in their labels called decay schemes.

• The decay scheme

Ø Gives a visual representation of radioactive decay process for a given radionuclide or
radiopharmaceutical and

Ø Is a line diagram that summarizes majority of the pertinent information about the decay process

and associated radiation.

DECAY SCHEMES
— Decay schemes identify the
Ø parent,
Ø daughter,
Ø mode of decay,
Ø intermediate excited states,
Ø energy levels,
Ø radiation emissions, and
Ø sometimes physical half-life
DECAY SCHEME FOR HYDROGEN 3

— The decay scheme for H-3 is shown below and

Ø Represents a relatively straight-forward decay scheme, where

Ø The H-3 decays to He -3 with a half-life of 12.3 years through the emission of b-
particle and g-ray of energy 0.0057 MeV.
ASSIGNMENT
• Describe radioactivity
• Describe methods of radioactive decay giving examples
• List hazards of radioactive decay and products of radiactive decay
• Write notes on decay schemes giving one example