15. Industrial Applications Flashcards
Apart from the medical applications, what are the other four industrial applications?
Tracing, gauging, material modifications, sterilisation
Describe tracing
Inject radioactive nuclei in system and observe movements
- Used in e.g. water tracing environment and metabolic processes
Describe gauging
Similar to medical imagine where we use radiation to check the thickness of material via attenuation
- Can also check the level of solid/liquid in a container or thickness of foil process
Describe material modifications
Direct implantation of elements into material
- Use ionisation/radiation to alter the chemical bonds and induce a chemical reaction e.g. heat treatment
Describe sterilization (and food preservation)
Using a lethal dose of radiation to kill pathogens
How can radioactive nuclei be used in material analysis
- Irradiate material to excite nuclei, then observe decay patterns which are usually unique
- Can determine which elements are present and their proportion - Can also use mass spectrometers with the ions which have been extracted from the sample
Describe carbon dating
Use Carbon to date nuclei
- Contains a fixed ratio of C12 (stable) and C14 (unstable) while alive
- Once dead, the C14 decays
- Calculate age with known ratio, and activity at current time
Describe neutron activation analysis
Determine the composition and amount of specific nuclei in the sample
Describe the process used in neutron activation analysis
Expose sample to neutrons - neutrons captured can turn the nucleus into an unstable one
- Use the unique radioactive decays and half lifes for identification
- Works best for nuclei with a high neutron cross section
What analysis is Rutherford back scattering used for?
Analysis of surfaces and thin films
How does Rutherford back-scattering work?
Use an ion beam, and measure the energies of the ion scattered at large angles
- From the deduced angle, and position where we detect the scattered ion, we can determine how deep the scattering occured
