Rapid radioactivity

2004/09/20 Roa Zubia, Guillermo - Elhuyar Zientzia

• Fisika

Radioactive atoms become other atoms when they emit radiation. However, this process does not occur at the same speed in all atoms.

For example, the famous carbon-14 is transformed into common carbon very gradually. Specifically, it takes 5,730 years to transform half of the radioactive atoms of a sample into normal carbon, while in the case of 7 beryllium, the change is rapid: Only 53 days are needed to transform half into a lithium-7 isotope. But is it possible to accelerate this process? Some Japanese physicists have succeeded.

In the case of Berilium-7, radiation is emitted when the nucleus of the atom "absorbs" an electron, which collides with a proton, causing a neutron and emitting radiation. In some atoms this process is frequent, in others the probability of collision of the electron with the nucleus is low and the speed of the process depends on such probability.

So to accelerate the process they have put the radioactive beryllium into a fulerene. Fulerenes are balloon-shaped molecules with many electrons inside. The beryllium trapped in the area emits radioactivity half a day faster.