During chemistry classes I learned that an atom consists of neutrons, electrons and protons. If you add a proton, 2 neutrons and an electron to an H atom, you get a He atom. Could one then, for example, change Fe into Au?
Answer
Dear Nick
Humans actually do this a little bit. In a nuclear reactor, uranium nuclei are bombarded with neutrons. This results in unstable atomic nuclei, where there are too many neutrons in the nucleus relative to protons. Those unstable nuclei disintegrate and the released energy is used to produce electricity. The formed atomic nuclei are also still unstable and will decay further. If you want to know more about this you should look for information about “radioactivity”.
The reverse: making heavier atoms from hydrogen, that is the process of nuclear fusion. This requires very high temperatures. Such processes take place in stars (including in the sun). Man is trying to mimic this process in a nuclear fusion reactor. The major problem here is keeping the high temperatures required for this under control. If you want to know more about this, “nuclear fusion” is a good keyword. Wikipedia can be a good starting point for searching the Internet. There are also some books in the “Scientific Library” series of the journal Nature, Science and Technology (NWT). You can find these books in a large library. Here the web address: http://www.nwtonline.nl/
Regards
Patrick Demeyere
Answered by
Dr Patrick Demeyere
Analytical Chemistry
Brothers De Smetstraat 1 9000 Ghent
http://www.odisee.be
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