Kinetics of Radioactive Decay

Abstract

At present there are over 3,000 known nuclides (see the Appendix in Vol. 2 on the ``Table of the Nuclides''), 265 of which are stable, while the rest, i.e., more than 90% of them, are radioactive. The chemical applications of the specific isotopes of chemical elements are mostly connected with the latter group, including quite a number of metastable nuclear isomers, making the kinetics of radioactive decay an important chapter of nuclear chemistry. After giving a phenomenological and then a statistical interpretation of the exponential law, the various combinations of individual decay processes as well as the cases of equilibrium and nonequilibrium will be discussed. Half-life systematics of the different decay modes detailed in Chaps. 2and 4of this volume are also summarized.