If protons have a positive charge and electrons have a negative charge, can we add up several protons and electrons together to create a new element, without adding neutrons to hold the nuclei together?
Answer
Yes and no.
Elements are defined by the number of protons only. It does not matter if (say) a carbon nucleus has six or seven (or eight) neutrons, they will all react the same.*
With that, to create new elements, you would need to get up to some 115 or so protons fused together. But there is a reason for neutrons: all the positively charged protons in the nucleus repel each other electrostatically so neutrons are there to stabilise the nucleus — you can think of it as cushioning protons apart. For each element there is a set number of neutrons that will create a stable nucleus. E.g. for hydrogen (one proton) it is zero or one, for oxygen it is eight, for carbon six or seven, for tin it can be $62, 64, 65, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70, 72$ or $74$.
Nuclei with other neutron numbers decay radioactively on half-life scales from femtoseconds to millions of years. I would expect no-neutron nuclei (non-hydrogen) to be on the very short edge of that spectrum (although I’m no radiochemist).
*: There are reactions in certain systems that depend a lot on hydrogen being $\ce{^1H}$ rather than $\ce{^2H}$ or $\ce{D}$ because they rely on the tunneling effect whose probability decreases with mass (I think by the factor $m^2$). That’s also why one shouldn’t drink $\ce{D2O}$
No comments:
Post a Comment