Decay Simulator: Sodium-32
General data
| Element name | Sodium |
|---|---|
| Chemical symbol | Na |
| Atomic number Z | 11 |
| Isotope name (symbol) | Sodium-32 (Na-32) |
| Neutron number N | 21 |
| Mass number A=Z+N | 32 |
Interactive radioactive decay simulation of Sodium-32: atom-by-atom decay, full decay chain, charts of nuclei count and activity.
| Half-life | 13.2 ms |
|---|
Radioactive decay series
- Sodium-32 13.2 ms
- Magnesium-32 80.4 ms · 67.7%
- Aluminium-32 31.7 ms · 64.0%
- Silicon-32 163 a · 63.5%
- Phosphorus-32 14.267 d · 63.5%
- Sulfur-32 stable · 63.5%
- Magnesium-31 270 ms · 24.0%
- Aluminium-31 0.64 s · 26.2%
- Silicon-31 157.24 min · 26.3%
- Phosphorus-31 stable · 26.3%
- Magnesium-30 314 ms · 8.3%
- Aluminium-30 3.61 s · 9.8%
- Silicon-30 stable · 10.2%
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 - 2.
- Aluminium-29 6.56 min · 0.005%
- Silicon-29 stable · 0.005%
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