Question

Why is radium 226 unstable?

Answer 1

Radium:

1. The chemical element radium has the symbol Ra. It belongs to Group 2 of the periodic table and is the sixth element.
2. Pure radium is silvery-white in color, but when exposed to air, it rapidly reacts with nitrogen to form radium nitride, a black surface layer.
3. Marie Sklodowska Curie and Perre Curie discovered radium in the form of radium chloride in 1898.
4. The radium compound was isolated from uraninite. It occurs in uranium ores with a concentration of 1 part per 3 million parts of uranium.

Reason for radium 226 is unstable:

1. This atom has 88 protons and loses two protons when it emits an alpha particle, therefore an atom with 86 protons is no longer Radium, but Radon and its mass have decreased by four atomic mass units.
2. Radon 222 and an alpha particle are the decay products of Radium 226. Radium-226 is a heavy nucleus with an alpha decay instability.