Taking a Look at Cobalt 60

The purpose of this lab was to determine the percent cobalt and oxalate by mass, and with that information, the empirical formula for cobalt oxalate hydrate, using the general formula Coa(C2O4)b.cH2O.

It is interesting to note that Carbon-14 is radioactive while Carbon-12 and Carbon-13 are stable.

Strontium is a chemical element with symbol Sr and atomic number (protons in nucleus) 38 and atomic weight 88.1 It is a soft, silver-gray metal, and has physical and chemical properties like to Calcium and Barium. It is available as four stable isotopes ubiquitously (Isotopes are differ in forms of an by number of protons in nucleus but possess a variable number of neutrons.) Strontium-88 is the most dominant among other forms, comprising 83% of natural strontium, where in additional three stable isotopes and their relative abundance are strontium-84 (0.6%), strontium-86 (9.9%), and strontium-87 (7.0%). Strontium is available ubiquitous vitally as as celestite (SrSO4) and strontianite (SrCO3), and it comprises about 0.025% of the earth’s crust. There are 16 major radioactive isotopes of strontium, but only strontium-90 has a half-life sufficiently long (29 years). In comparison with half-lives of remaining strontium radionuclides are fewer than 65 days. Strontium-90 decays to yttrium-90 by decaying a beta particle, and yttrium-90 decays by decaying a energetic beta particle with a half-life of 64 hours to zirconium-90. The key health concerns for strontium-90 are associated to the energetic beta particle from yttrium-90.2

A Cobalt-Amine-Halide compound is synthesized from cobalt (II) chloride hexahydrate. An orange-tinted solid is produced and is considered to be unknown since the specific ligand amounts are unknown. By determining the percent composition of various elements and compounds in the unknown, its true identity can be predicted. Chloride, ammonia, and cobalt are three examples of percent compositions determined to help narrow the selection of possible unknowns. Titrations using Na2S2O3 and HCl to determine percent cobalt and ammonia, respectively, are used. Silver nitrate is used to precipitate the chloride ions in the unknown, which can be measured to determine the percent composition of chloride

Cobalt is a metal that was first isolated by a Swedish chemist named Georg Brandt in 1735. Cobalt was the first metal discovered since prehistoric times. Cobalt’s atomic number is 27, its atomic weight is 58.933195, its density is 8.86 grams per cubic centimeter, and its group number is 9 and period number is 4. Cobalt is usually recovered as a byproduct of mining and refining nickel, iron, copper, silver, and lead. The name originated from the German word “Kobald”, meaning underground gnome. In German folklore, Kobalden were sprites or gnomes who lived in mines. These gnomes would cause trouble for the miners. Miners who took copper ores later found that the ores contained the toxic, arsenic bearing cobalt ore. Miners in these copper mines complained of health issues and thought of the cobalt ores are an obstacle due to cobalt having no value on the

In the world there are 118 different elements. Each of these elements have a specific job that they accomplish for us and the Earth. Some of these elements are used more than others. There are even a few that do not occur naturally on Earth, which means they are created in labs or in other controlled areas. Many are even harmful to us which can cause many illnesses if not treated with care. Although some may be harmful or some may be man-made they serve a purpose in order to keep our world going.

The chemical and nuclear properties of the nucleus are determined by the number of protons, called the atomic number, and the number of neutrons, called the neutron number. The atomic mass number is the total number of nucleons. For example, carbon has atomic number 6, and its abundant carbon-12 isotope has 6 neutrons, whereas its rare carbon-13 isotope has 7 neutrons. Some elements occur in nature with only one stable isotope, such as fluorine. Other elements occur with many stable isotopes, such as tin with ten stable isotopes.

Atoms are the microscopic building blocks of all matter in the universe. Everything around us are made of atoms, including radiation. The centre of an atom is called the nucleus, it is made of two particles: protons, which carry a positive charge and neutrons, which have no charge. Electron carry a negative charge and it is outside of a nucleus. The attraction of these negative electrons to the positive nucleus is what keep the atom together. All the atom of the given elements has a specific number of protons and neutrons, but sometimes it will have too many of those and become radioactive and an unstable atom is called a radioisotope. When radioactive want to be stable again, they must release energy until they get back to a balanced state.

40K is a naturally occurring isotope of potassium (a soft, silver-white metal that is distributed and present in both plants and animal tissues and in soil.).

Dimitri Mendeleev a Russian chemist began the periodic table in 1869. He began by rearranging the elements by their atomic mass. He left blank spaces since there was a lot more discovery to be made later down the road. A physicist named Atonie Bequerel was the first to discover radioactivity. Ernest Rutherford was the first to discover alpha, beta, and gamma rays. Noble gases, electrons, protons, lanthanides and actinides were also discovered by several other scientists. The periodic table began with just forty-seven elements, and now we have over one-hundred. We are at one-hundred and eighteen to be exact, and who knows, we may or may not discover more in the future.

The use of Cobalt, a rare Earth metal, in today's technology has created vast problems among the areas in which it is mined. 60% of the cobalt on Earth is mined from the Congo locate in Africa; however, the Congo is a very impoverished and corrupt country. Many of the miners, including children, are forced to work long hours, and in very dangerous environments without the necessary protection. Cobalt, an essential piece of technology used to charge lithium batteries, allows for devices to become smaller and smaller, thus important for this era of technology. For example, the average car has between 10-20 pounds of cobalt; whereas a smart phone contains 5-10 grams. Since the discovery of child labors and unsafe work conditions in the congo,

  Due  to  an  increasing  global  demand  for  energy,  engineers  have  been  challenged  to  come   up  with  a  new  generation  synergy,  which  has  to  be  a  sustainable  energy  system.  One  of  the   major  capacity  additions  over  the  next  20  years  will  be  natural  gas  fired  power  plants,   which  utilize  gas  turbine  power  generation  equipment.  The  demand  for  cobalt  is  expected   to  increase  significantly.  But  can  the  identified  reserves  of  cobalt  cope  with  this  increased   demand?  The  purpose  of  this  report  is  to  understand  the  market  dynamics  of  cobalt   scarcity,  and  present  recommendations  for

The half-life of 99mTc after injection into the body is 6 hours. This allows researchers to put these nuclei to use. Nuclei of technetium 99 emit gamma rays with a characteristic energy of 140 keV (Leden, E. 1990). This property makes them highly desirable in medicine, as gamma rays are absorbed far from the examined organ, minimizing the danger posed to living matter. Production of 99mTc entails aggregation of human serum albumin using heat and a reducing agent to form the particles.

The person who officially discovered carbon is unknown. However, carbon has been around since ancient times. Of course the people of ancient times did not know that carbon was apart of the Periodic Table of Elements. The reason why the person who discovered carbon is unknown is, because carbon has been around for so long that there is no record of who actually discovered carbon.

Cobalt-60, a radioactive isotope of cobalt-59, was discovered by Glenn T. Seaborg and John Livingood at the University of California during the late 1930’s. Cobalt-60 was discovered by placing cobalt-59 in a nuclear reactor and then bombarded with neutrons to deliberately produce the radioactive cobalt-60. Over time cobalt-59 will absorb a neutron and become cobalt-60. Cobalt-60 emits beta and gamma radiation during its decay process. The use of cobalt-60 has been notable throughout its conception and is most notable nowadays in the use of food irradiation. Food irradiation is the process of bombarding food with radiation to sanitise the food and kill any bacteria. However, food irradiation treatment has raised many concerns over potentially