Chemical and Nuclear Reactions
- In a chemical reaction each atom participates as a whole and it involves the combination or separation of whole atoms in exothermic and endothermic reactions respectively.
- Consider the chemical reaction of carbon with oxygen which can be written as :
C+O2→CO2+ heat energy released.
- The heat energy released is about 4 electron volts (eV) where 1 eV = 1.6021x 10-19 J) In these chemical reactions the nuclei does not change and the number of atoms of each element in the reactants is equal to the number of atoms in the products of combustion.
- While in case of nuclear reactions, the reactant nuclei do not show up in the products but show up some Nuclei.
- However, the number of nucleons in the reactants and products remain the same in a chemical reaction.
- For example, consider the reactants C and D and the products E and F in a nuclear reaction as follows :
Z1CA1+z2
DA2→z3
EA3+z4FA4
Where, z1+z2
= z3+z4 and A1+A2 = A3+A4