Seminar No.7 - Intro to Technetium

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[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

HUGE MISTAKE SORRY: The transition from Tc-99m to the Tc-99g goes via Emission of 141 keV, NOT 143 keV. Sorry😅

[@Havron]

Your listed half-life for Tc-97 on the "Woah Technetium" slide is also incorrect: it's actually comparable to that of Tc-98, as you can see on the table of nuclides excerpt on the following slide. In fact, within margin of error, I don't believe we really know which of the two is the more stable isotope. 🤔

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

@@Havron you are correct😅 most likely got that Info from a very old chart of nuclides

[@Havron]

@@SimonsNuclearchemistry Too many numbers to keep track of... 😵‍💫

[@kwokhardy2512]

Dear molybdenum and ruthenium, Please give technetium some stable isotopes.

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

Technetium: why don’t I have stable isotopes? Stable elements: oh we don’t talk about that.💀

[@jeremydouglas1763]

This is great stuff, thank you. When you have time would really like to see some info on how technetium-99m is bound into useful compounds for medical tracers!

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

I can Show how medical Tc-99m is produced on a VERY small scale but some more exotic Tc-99m compounds for medical use are certain possible to show in the future ;D

[@Sordidsardonic]

Wouldn't the Tc(0) oxidation state as the metal also be considered stable?

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

True that! Although not possible to find in nature. That was the point, I was going for😅

[@MyProjectsTV]

I still don't really understand the difference between Tc99 and Tc99m. It seems like it's explained with the nuclear shell model which accoding to Wikipedia is " is partly analogous to the atomic shell model" but it seems less intuitive to me. Maybe you explained it in another video already? Else it would be a good video idea ;)

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

Didn't make a dedicated Video about it but it will be a huge part when it comes to reading decay schemes. So you know flame colours and why they happen? When Electrons are excited to higher shells, where they usually not are. They will fall to the lower state again, releasing the energy in the Form of light (Electromagnetic rays). Protons and Neutrons also are categorisied into shells and its the same thing with the flame colour but on the high energy range of the electromagnetic spectrum. (Simplified version)

[@MyProjectsTV]

@@SimonsNuclearchemistry Yeah I get that, the thing with the electron shells are easier to understand because they are based on the distance from the nucleous. I guess there's no intuitive picture for the protons and neutrons.

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

@@MyProjectsTV maybe think of the nucleus as a whole spinning faster and then spinning a bit slower? Its not totally wrong but also not that right as it leaves other forms of excitation out... but it gets the Job done

[@Auroral_Anomaly]

It has stored potential energy in the form of a high energy state, the neutrons and protons are held in a position where they will lose energy to get to the ground state sort of like an excited electric shell.

[@brfisher1123]

Have you seen what promethium metal looks like? Promethium is one of those elements along with astatine and francium and all of the remaining elements beyond einsteinium that I have never seen in their elemental forms at all. I'm aware that though it is technically possible to see both promethium and fermium in macroscopic amounts there's absolutely *NO WAY* that we'll *EVER* be able to see any of those other elements like astatine and francium given the incredibly short half-lives of their most stable isotopes, sorry my fellow element collectors lol 😂😂

[@SimonsNuclearchemistry]

No I have not😅 but what I have seen in real life is the pink colour of Promethiumchloride crystals. I don't think I'll ever be able to see the metall. But I will be able to show some real astatine chemistry in the far future^^

[@brfisher1123]

@@SimonsNuclearchemistry That I can see as a possibility since as you already know an 8-hour half-life is more than enough time to do chemistry with astatine though still not long enough to be able to see the element lol 😂😂 I imagine that astatine (along with those other short-lived elements) would just appear as a bright glowing blue orb anyway due to intense air ionization and/or Cherenkov radiation even if we could get it in macroscopic quantities lol 😂😂

[@Havron]

Surely someone has produced metallic promethium. After all, we have figures for its density and crystal structure. Why are there no photos out there? I just did a quick calculation and if someone were to produce a piece of the same Onyxmet Tc-plated Au material at a size of 1 mm² (big enough to see) using the same thickness of metal on both sides but with Pm-147 instead of Tc-99, the total activity of the piece would be about 50 MBq or a little over 1 mCi. That's not bad! Especially since the isotope is a (nearly) pure beta emitter, it would be relatively safe. Someone should definitely do this. 🙂