Decay Simulator: Rubidium-101
General data
| Element name | Rubidium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Rb |
| Atomic number Z | 37 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Rubidium-101 (Rb-101) |
| Neutron number N | 64 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 101 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Rubidium-101: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 32 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Rubidium-101 32 ms
- Strontium-101 114 ms · 73.0%
- Yttrium-101 429 ms · 71.2%
- Zirconium-101 2.32 s · 69.8%
- Niobium-101 7.2 s · 69.8%
- Molybdenum-101 14.61 min · 69.8%
- Technetium-101 14.12 min · 69.8%
- Ruthenium-101 stable · 69.8%
- Strontium-100 201 ms · 27.0%
- Yttrium-100 729 ms · 28.5%
- Zirconium-100 7.1 s · 29.6%
- Niobium-100 1.4 s · 29.6%
- Molybdenum-100 7.07×10¹⁸ a · 29.6%
- Ruthenium-100 stable · 29.6%
- Yttrium-99 1.483 s · 0.29%
- Zirconium-99 2.1 s · 0.58%
- Niobium-99 15.0 s · 0.58%
- Molybdenum-99 65.936 h · 0.58%
- Technetium-99 2.111×10⁵ a · 0.58%
- Ruthenium-99 stable · 0.58%
Rare branches (below 0.01%)
Rare branches are transformations that occur in fewer than 0.01% of decays, e.g. double beta decay or cluster emission. The nuclides they produce are practically absent from a sample, so they are hidden by default to keep the main path clear. In this series: branches - 1, nuclides - 3.
- Zirconium-98 30.7 s · 0.0052%
- Niobium-98 2.86 s · 0.0052%
- Molybdenum-98 stable · 0.0052%
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