A Brief Account of Radio-activity Part 5

CHAPTER VI

RADIO-ACTIVITY AND CHEMICAL THEORY

Influence upon Chemical Theory

It can easily be seen that the revelations of radio-activity must have a far-reaching effect upon chemical theory, throwing light upon, and so bringing nearer, the solution of some of the problems which have been long discussed without arriving at any satisfactory solution. The so-called electro-chemical nature of the elements will certainly be made much clearer. The changes in valence should become intelligible and valence itself should be explained. A fuller understanding of the ionization of electrolytes also becomes possible. As these matters are debatable and the details are still unsettled, it is scarcely appropriate to give here the hypotheses in detail or to enter into any discussion of them. But the promise of solution in accord with the facts is encouraging.

The Periodic System

Such progress has been made, however, in regard to a better understanding of the Periodic System that the new facts and their interpretation may well be given. No reliable clue to the meaning of this system and the true relations.h.i.+p between the elements had been found up to the time when new light was thrown upon it by the discoveries of radio-activity. The underlying principle was unknown and even the statement of what was sometimes erroneously called the Periodic Law was manifestly incorrect and its terms were ignored.

Basis of the Periodic System

The ordinary statement of the fundamental principle of the Periodic System has been that the properties of the elements were periodic functions of the atomic weights, and that when the elements were arranged in the order of their atomic weights they fell into a natural series, taking their places in the proper related groups.

In accepting this, the interpretation of function was both unmathematical and vague, and the order of the atomic weights was not strictly adhered to but unhesitatingly abandoned to force the group relations.h.i.+p. Wherever consideration of the atomic weight would have placed an element out of the grouping with other elements to which it was clearly related in physical and chemical properties, the guidance of these properties was accepted and that of the atomic weights disregarded. Such s.h.i.+ftings are noted in the cases of tellurium and iodine; cobalt and nickel; argon and pota.s.sium. It was most helpful that, following the order of atomic weights, the majority of the elements fell naturally into their places. Otherwise the generalization known as the Periodic System might have remained for a long time undiscovered and the progress of chemistry would have been greatly r.e.t.a.r.ded.

Influence of Positive Nucleus

It is evident that the order of the elements is determined by something else than their atomic weights. From the known facts of radio-activity it would seem that this determining factor is the positive nucleus. And this nucleus also determines the ma.s.s or weight of the atom. Taking the elements in their order in the Periodic Series and numbering the positions held by them in this series as 1, 2, 3, etc., we get the position number or what is called the atomic number.

This designates the order or position of the element in the series.

We must learn that this number marks a position rather than a single element, a statement which will be explained later.

Determination of the Atomic Number

Since the atomic weight is unreliable as a means of settling the position of an element in the series and so fixing its atomic number, how is this number to be determined? Of course, one answer to this question is that we may rely upon a consideration of the general properties, as has been done in the past. Fortunately, other methods have been found by which this may be confirmed. For instance, the stopping and scattering power of the element for alpha particles has been suggested and successfully used.

Use of X-Ray Spectra

A most interesting method is due to Moseley's observations upon the _X_-ray spectra of the various elements. It has been found that crystals, such as those of quartz, have the power of reflecting and defining the _X_ rays. The spectra given by these rays can be photographed and the wave lengths measured. These _X_ rays are emitted by various substances under bombardment by the cathode rays (negative electrons) and have great intensity and very minute wave lengths.

Moseley made use of various metals as anti-cathodes for the production of these rays. These metals ranged from calcium to zinc in the Periodic System. In each case he observed that two characteristic types of _X_ rays of definite intensity and different wave lengths were emitted. From the frequency of these waves there is deduced a simple relation connected with a fundamental quant.i.ty which increases in units from one element to the next. This is due to the charge of the positive central nucleus. The number found in this way is one less than the atomic number. Thus the number for calcium is 19 instead of 20 and that for zinc is 29 instead of 30. So, by adding 1 to the number found the atomic number is obtained.

The atomic weight can usually be followed in fixing the atomic number, but where doubt exists the method just given can be resorted to. Thus doubt arises in the case of iron and nickel and cobalt. This would be the order according to the atomic weights. The _X_-ray method gives the order as iron, cobalt, and nickel, and this is the accepted order in the Periodic System.

Changes Caused by Ray Emission

On studying the properties of the elements in a transformation series in connection with the ray emission which produced them, it was seen that these properties were determined in each case by the nature of the ray emitted from the preceding transformation product or parent element.

Atomic Weight Losses

Each alpha particle emitted means a loss of 4 in the atomic weight.

This is the ma.s.s of a helium atom. Thus from uranium with an atomic weight of 238 to radium there is a loss of three alpha particles.

Therefore, 12 must be subtracted from 238, leaving 226, which agrees closely with the atomic weight of radium as actually determined by the ordinary methods. Uranium X_{1}, then, would have an atomic weight of 234 and that of ionium would be 230. The other intermediate elements, whose formation is due to the loss of beta particles only, show no decrease in atomic weight.

Lead the End Product

From uranium to lead there is a loss of 8 alpha particles, or 32 units in atomic weight. This would give for the final product an atomic weight of 206. The atomic weight of lead is 207.17. It is not at all certain that the final product of this series is ordinary lead. The facts are such that they would lead one to think that it is not. It is known only that the end product would probably be some element closely resembling lead chemically and hence difficult or impossible to separate from it. Several accurate determinations of lead coming from uranium minerals, which always carry this element and in an approximately definite ratio to the amount of uranium present, show atomic weights of 206.40; 206.36; and 206.54. Even the most rigid methods of purification fail to change these results. The lead in these minerals might therefore be considered as coming in the main from the disintegration of the uranium atom and, though chemically resembling lead, as being in reality a different element with different atomic weight.

Furthermore, in the thorium series 6 alpha particles are lost before reaching the end product, which again is perhaps the chemical a.n.a.logue of lead. The atomic weight here should be 232 less 24, or 208.

Determinations of the atomic weight of lead from thorite, a thorium mineral nearly free from uranium, gave 208.4.

The end product of the actinium series is also an element resembling lead, but both the beginning and ending of this series are still in obscurity.

Changes of Position in the Periodic System

The loss of 4 units in the atomic weight of an element on the expulsion of an alpha particle is accompanied by a change of chemical properties which removes the new element two groups toward the positive side in the Periodic System.

Thus ionium is so closely related to thorium and so resembles it chemically that it is properly cla.s.sed along with thorium as a quadrivalent element in the fourth group. Ionium expels an alpha particle and becomes radium, which is a bivalent element resembling barium belonging to the second group. Radium then expels an alpha particle and becomes the gas, radium emanation, which is an a.n.a.logue of argon and belongs to the zero group. Other instances might be cited which go to show that in all cases the loss of an alpha particle makes a change of two places toward the left or positive side of the System.

Changes from Loss of Beta Particles

The loss of a beta particle causes no change in the atomic weight but does cause a s.h.i.+ft for each beta particle of one group toward the right or negative side of the System. Two such losses, then, will counterbalance the loss of an alpha particle and bring the new element back to the group originally occupied by its progenitor. Thus uranium in the sixth group loses an alpha particle and the product UX_{1} falls in the fourth group. One beta particle is then lost and UX_{2} belonging to the fifth group is formed. With the loss of one more beta particle the new element returns to the sixth group from which the transformation began.

The table on page 48, as adapted from Soddy, affords a general view of these changes.

Isotopes

An examination of the table will show a number of different elements falling in the same position in a group of the Periodic System irrespective of their atomic weights. These are chemically inseparable so far as the present limitations of chemical a.n.a.lysis are concerned.

Even the spectra of these elements seem to be identical so far as known. This ident.i.ty extends to most of the physical properties, but this demands much further investigation. For this new phenomenon Soddy has suggested the word isotope for the element and isotopic for the property, and these names have come into general use.

[Ill.u.s.tration: RADIO-ACTIVE ELEMENTS FROM URANIUM AND THORIUM PLACED IN THE PERIODIC SYSTEMS Adapted from Soddy]

Manifestly, we have come across a phenomenon here which quite eliminates the atomic weight as a determining factor as to position in the Periodic or Natural System or of the elemental properties in general. All of the properties of the bodies which we call elements, and consequently of their compounds and hence of matter in general, seem to depend upon the balance maintained between the charges of negative and positive electricity which, according to Rutherford's theory, go to make up the atom.

It is evident that any study of chemical phenomena and chemical theory is quite incomplete without a study of radio-activity and the transformations which it produces.

Radio-activity in Nature

In concluding this outline of the main facts of radio-activity, it is of interest to discuss briefly the presence of radio-active material on this planet and in the stars. Facts enough have been gathered to show the probable universality of this phenomenon of radio-activity.

Whether this means solely the disintegration of the uranium and thorium atoms, or whether other elements are also transformed under the intensity of the agencies at work in the universe, is of course a question as yet unsolved.

Radio-active Products in the Earth's Crust