Decay Simulator: Palladium-91
General data
| Element name | Palladium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Pd |
| Atomic number Z | 46 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Palladium-91 (Pd-91) |
| Neutron number N | 45 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 91 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Palladium-91: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 32 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Palladium-91 32 ms
- Rhodium-91 1.47 s · 97.0%
- Ruthenium-91 8.0 s · 95.7%
- Technetium-91 3.14 min · 95.7%
- Molybdenum-91 15.49 min · 95.7%
- Niobium-91 680 a · 95.7%
- Zirconium-91 stable · 95.7%
- Ruthenium-90 11.7 s · 3.0%
- Technetium-90 49.2 s · 4.3%
- Molybdenum-90 5.56 h · 4.3%
- Niobium-90 14.60 h · 4.3%
- Zirconium-90 stable · 4.3%
How to read the simulation
Grid: each pixel is one atom of the starting isotope. When an atom decays, the pixel takes the colour of the decay product - in decay series mode the product can decay further. The moment each atom decays is random, but the probability follows from the half-life, so after one T½ about half of the atoms remain, after two - about a quarter.
Chart N(t): what percentage of the sample atoms each nuclide makes up at a given moment. The line of the starting isotope falls (by half after each T½), the lines of stable products rise, and those of short-lived ones first rise, then fall.
Chart A(t): activity, i.e. the number of decays per second (becquerel, Bq). It depends on the number of atoms and on how fast they decay: for the same number of atoms, the shorter the T½, the higher the activity.
Simulation time runs faster (or slower) than real time - the time scale slider sets the multiplier. This way you can watch the decay of isotopes that live from fractions of a second to billions of years.
Well-known isotopes
- H-3 - Tritium - glowing watch hands, nuclear fusion fuel.
- C-14 - Radiocarbon dating.
- K-40 - Natural radioactivity - in bananas and in our bodies.
- Co-60 - Radiotherapy and radiation sterilization.
- I-131 - Thyroid treatment; Chernobyl fallout.
- Cs-137 - Long-lasting contamination after Chernobyl and Fukushima.
- Rn-222 - Radon in basements and mines.
- Ra-226 - The longest-lived isotope of radium - the element discovered by Marie and Pierre Curie in 1898.
- U-235 - Nuclear power plant fuel; start of the actinium series.
- U-238 - Age of the Earth; start of the uranium series.
- Pu-238 - Power source for space probes (Voyager, Curiosity rover).
- Am-241 - Ionization smoke detectors.
Data sources
- NNDC Wallet Cards 2023 - Data as of 15 October 2024 - licence: Public domain