Examples of nuclide in the following topics:
-
Nuclear Stability
- Filled shells, such as the filled shell of 50 protons in the element tin, confers unusual stability on the nuclide.
- Of the 254 known stable nuclides, only four have both an odd number of protons and an odd number of neutrons:
- Also, only four naturally occurring, radioactive odd-odd nuclides have a half-life greater than a billion years:
-
Beta Decay
- Therefore the set of all nuclides with the same A can be introduced; these isobaric nuclides may turn into each other via beta decay.
- One example is the odd-proton odd-neutron nuclide 40 K, which undergoes both types of beta decay with a half-life of 1.277 ·109 years.
-
Alpha Decay
- Alpha decay typically occurs in the heaviest nuclides.
- In theory it can occur only in nuclei somewhat heavier than nickel (element 28), in which overall binding energy per nucleon is no longer a minimum and the nuclides are therefore unstable toward spontaneous fission-type processes.
-
Radioactive Decay Series: Introduction
- But, since its activity is inversely proportional to its half-life, any nuclide in the decay chain finally contributes as much as the head of the chain.
-
Calculations Involving Half-Life and Decay-Rates
- Half-lives of known radionuclides vary widely, from more than 1019 years, such as for the very nearly stable nuclide 209 Bi, to 10−23 seconds for highly unstable ones.
-
Nuclear Fission in Reactors
- The two nuclei produced are most often of comparable but slightly different sizes, typically with a mass ratio of products of about 3 to 2, for common fissile nuclides.
-
Early Models of the Atom
- The atomic nucleus contains a mix of positively charged protons and electrically neutral neutrons (except in the case of hydrogen-1, which is the only stable nuclide with no neutrons).