this post was submitted on 04 May 2024
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Does Uranium decay when it’s in compounds with other elements? What happens to the bonds when it turns into some other element? What happens to the compound?
Chemical bonds can affect decay rates IIRC, but it's not usually a huge difference. The nucleus is still going to be unstable. It definitely changes the molecule (and might break it)
That's interesting. Only read about this in High School and maybe because of the "not usually a huge difference", it was claimed that chemical bonds don't affect decay rates.
I always felt a bit weird with that conclusion, but maybe it was just to make the maths easier, not having to include effects from another force into the calculations.
It's like saying ants don't affect buildings. In the vast majority of situations it's true, but carpenter ants can destroy wooden structures in some cimates.
The high school class is concerned about the effects of gravity, wind, rain, earthquakes, and maybe taxes on buildings, while the college+ classes can get into the effects of wood eating organisms, angry tenants, and killdozers.
I was reading about some terribly unholy chemistry once where the researchers wanted to make a molecule but it just wouldn't happen. So they instead made it with a radioactive isotope of a heavier element, then as it decays the molecule becomes their desired product.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decay_technique
That is SICK. I love science hacks. Thank you for sharing!