Nuclear Reactions

Nuclear Reactions:

The reactions in which nuclei of atoms are involved resulting in the formation of new nuclei are known as Nuclear reactions. When a nucleon (incident particle) comes in contact with another nucleus (target nucleus), the latter changes into a new nucleus and this process is known as a Nuclear reaction. These reactions are expressed in the form of chemical equations as under-

• The reactants are written on the L.H.S while products on R.H.S having an arrow in between.
• The mass number (atomic mass) of the element is written as superscript while the atomic number is expressed as a subscript on the symbol of the element say A as _{Atomic Number}A^{Atomic Mass}. For Example- ₉₂U²³⁸ represents the atom of U having atomic mass 238 and atomic number 92.
• Atomic Mass and Atomic Number must be balanced on both sides of Nuclear reaction.
• The symbols used for various projectiles used in Nuclear reactions are as- proton (₁H¹), electron or β-particle (_-1e⁰), Neutron (₀n¹), α-particle (₂He⁴), deutron (₁H² or ₁D²) etc. A nucleon is a nuclear particle.

Nuclear reactions are usually represented by the following notations and sequence-

Reactant Nucleus (Bombarding Particle, Particle Emitted) Product Nucleus. For Example- the nuclear reaction ₁₃Al²⁷ (α, p) ₁₄Si³⁰ mean Al-27 is a target, α-particle is a projectile, a proton is an emitting particle and Si-30 is the product and is represented as-

Other Examples are-