Half-half-half!

Determine the amount of P o 210 Po-210 required to provide a source of α \alpha particles of activity 5 5 milli-curie. (in grams)

Details and Additional Information-

Half life of polonium is 138 138 days.


The answer is 0.00000111.

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1 solution

Chew-Seong Cheong
Aug 19, 2014

1 c u r i e ( C i ) = 3.7 × 1 0 10 1\space curie\space (Ci) = 3.7\times 10^{10} atoms decaying per second.

In terms of m o l mol and half life t 1 2 t_{\frac{1}{2}} :

1 C i = 3.7 × 1 0 10 ( ln 2 ) N A × t 1 2 m o l 1\space Ci = \cfrac{3.7\times 10^{10}}{(\ln{2})N_A} \times t_{\frac{1}{2}} mol

where N A = 6.0221 × 1 0 23 / m o l N_A = 6.0221\times 10^{23}/mol is the Avogadro constant.

For 210 P o ^{210}Po , 1 m o l = 210 g 1 mol=210 g , t 1 2 = 138 d a y s t_{\frac{1}{2}} = 138\space days and one α \alpha particle for one atom decayed,

5 m C i = 3.7 × 1 0 10 × 138 × 24 × 60 × 60 × 0.005 ln 2 × 6.0221 × 1 0 23 = 1.11 × 1 0 6 g \Rightarrow 5\space mCi = \cfrac{3.7\times 10^{10}\times 138\times 24\times 60\times 60\times 0.005}{\ln{2}\times 6.0221\times 10^{23}}=\boxed{1.11\times 10^{-6}g}

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