In nuclear chemistry How do you solve for electrons?

Question

I understand that electrons are based on positive and negative, and the neutral ones are the same as protons. Negative charged elements have more electrons than protons, positive charged elements have less electrons than protons, but how do you find the exact number when given an element?

? · Accepted Answer

Basically, the number of electrons when uncharged (a neutral species) is equal to the element's atomic number.
Subtract the charge to get the total number of electrons (positive IONS are missing electrons, negative ions have extra electrons).

morningstar · Answer

If you are doing nuclear chemistry you do not consider the electrons that orbit the atom. Each symbol represents a bare nucleus, e.g.

4,2He

represents an alpha particle with NO electrons.

To the extent electrons are involved, they will be being produced or consumed in beta decay reactions. We know in actuality that the electron in electron capture comes from the electrons orbiting the atom, but that is not modeled in the reaction. If we included electrons with their atoms, then a formula for beta decay would just look like

x 14,6C -> 14,7N x

No electron shown, because it's already included in the symbols already include the right numbers of electrons. But that's not how you write it in nuclear chemistry. You write

14,6C -> 14,7N + 0,-1e

This is saying that a *nucleus* consisting of 6 protons and 8 neutrons decayed to a nucleus consisting of 7 protons and 7 neutrons, and emitted an electron. We know there are also 6 more electrons that just go along for the ride. You could write

14,6C + 6 x 0,-1e -> 14,7N + 7 x 0,-1e

But often in writing reactions a term that appears on both sides is omitted.

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In nuclear chemistry How do you solve for electrons?

2 Answers