History of Nuclear Chemistry

Works Cited

Google Images

Helmenstine, Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.Anne

Marie. “Learn the Major Events in Chemistry History with This Timeline.” ThoughtCo, 23 Nov. 2017, 11pm, www.thoughtco.com/timeline-of-major-chemistry-events-602166.

“Outline History of Nuclear Energy.” Outline History of

Nuclear Energy, World Nuclear Association, 23 Nov. 2017, 10:30pm, www.world-nuclear.org/information-library/current-and-future-generation/outline-history-of-nuclear-energy.aspx.

Nuclear Chemistry has touched people's lives for centuries. Discover how it got started.

The Early Days of

Nuclear Chemistry

By: Kathato Mthethwa

Ernest Rutherford

J.J. Thomson

Paul Villard

Thomson was able to make electrons visible with a cathode ray tube.

Martin Klaproth

Pierre and Marie Curie

Rutherford recognized the emission of alpha or beta particles as radioactivity, creating a new element.

The Curies isolated radium and polonium from pitchblende.

Discovered electrons (1897)

Discovered gamma rays (1898-1900)

Discovered radium and polonium (1900-1908)

Rutherford discovered protons through the Gold Foil Experiment.

Wilhelm Roentgen

Henri Becquerel

The reaction of pitchblende (ore with radium and uranium) on a photographic plate showed the the emission of beta radiation and alpha particles.

Discovered radioactivity (1902)

Discovered proton (1911)

Discovered Uranium (1789)

John Cockcroft and Ernest Walton

James Chadwick

Discovered radioactivity (1896)

Enrico Fermi

Discovered x-rays (1895)

Chadwick used the knowledge of protons to discover another subatomic particle inside the nucleus with the same mass as a proton, but no charge.

Francis Perrin

Perrin

Fermi bombarded atoms with accelerated neutrons to produce more artificial radionuclides, both heavier and lighter.

Performed experiments on nuclear transformations (1932)

Discovered the neutron (1932)

Frederick Soddy

Irene Joliot-Curie and Frederic Joliot

Perrin found the necessary mass of uranium for a chain reaction and resulting enormous energy release. This discovery and Bohr's were the basis for nuclear power plants.

Discovered artificial radionuclides through accelerated neutrons (1935)

Otto Frisch and Lise Meitner

Discovered needed uranium mass for great energy release (1939)

Using similar experiments as Rutherford, Soddy found that naturally-radioactive elements have various isotopes or radionuclides.

Friesch (Niel Bohr's nephew) and Meitner experimentally confirmed the energy release of atomic fission calculated by Einstein in the early 1900s (E=mc^2).

The Joliots discovered that artificial radionuclides can be produced from neutron transformations, branching from Cockcroft and Walton's research.

Confirmed the energy release of atomic fission (1939)

Otto Hahn and Fritz Strassman

Hahn and Strassman isolated atomic fission in nuclear transformations, producing lighter elements (barium) from heavier ones (uranium).

Niel Bohr

Discovered the existence of isotopes for radioactive elements (1911)

Discovered artificial radionuclides from neutron transformations (1934)

Bohr proposed the use of U-235 with slow-moving neutrons for a self sustained chain reaction and resulting enormous energy release. This was confirmed by Szilard and Fermi.

Demonstrated atomic fission (1938)

Discovered needed uranium isotope for great energy release (1939)