Nuclear chemistry is the study of nuclear reactions and their uses. Up to this point in your study of chemistry, there has been a large focus on the electrons when looking at atoms and molecules. Electrons largely determine an element’s behavior in chemical change or chemical reactions. In this topic, we will shift our focus to the nucleus and nuclear reactions.
I’ve found while teaching this course that nuclear chemistry is generally among the most interesting topics in the course for both me and students, largely because it sheds light on some cool topics in chemistry that are also relevant to our lives: radioactivity, nuclear energy and weapons, and radiation in the body and medicine. We will focus on the first two (splitting our study pretty evenly between the two), it would be nice to look at the third as well, unfortunately there is only so much time to focus on nuclear chemistry in the course, and biology and biochemistry coursework does a nice job on the third topic.
