Concept

Phosphorus-32

Phosphorus-32 (32P) is a radioactive isotope of phosphorus. The nucleus of phosphorus-32 contains 15 protons and 17 neutrons, one more neutron than the most common isotope of phosphorus, phosphorus-31. Phosphorus-32 only exists in small quantities on Earth as it has a short half-life of 14 days and so decays rapidly. Phosphorus is found in many organic molecules and so phosphorus-32 has many applications in medicine, biochemistry, and molecular biology where it can be used to trace phosphorylated molecules (for example, in elucidating metabolic pathways) and radioactively label DNA. Phosphorus-32 has a short half-life of 14.268 days and decays into sulfur-32 by beta decay as shown in this nuclear equation: {| border="0" |- style="height:2em;" | ||→ || ||+ ||_Electron ||+ ||_Electron Antineutrino |} 1.709 MeV of energy is released from this decay. The kinetic energy of the electron varies with an average of approximately 0.5 MeV and the remainder of the energy is carried by the nearly undetectable electron antineutrino. In comparison to other beta radiation-emitting nuclides the electron is moderately energetic. It is blocked by around 1 m of air or 5 mm of acrylic glass. The sulfur-32 nucleus produced is in the ground state so there is no additional gamma ray emission. Phosphorus-32 has important uses in medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology. It only exists naturally on earth in very small amounts and its short half-life means useful quantities have to be produced synthetically. Phosphorus-32 can be generated synthetically by irradiation of sulfur-32 with moderately fast neutrons as shown in this nuclear equation: {| border="0" |- style="height:2em;" | ||+ ||_Neutron ||→ || + ||_Proton |} The sulfur-32 nucleus captures the neutron and emits a proton, reducing the atomic number by one while maintaining the mass number of 32. This reaction has also been used to determine the yield of nuclear weapons. Phosphorus is abundant in biological systems and, as a radioactive isotope is almost chemically identical with stable isotopes of the same element, phosphorus-32 can be used to label biological molecules.

About this result
This page is automatically generated and may contain information that is not correct, complete, up-to-date, or relevant to your search query. The same applies to every other page on this website. Please make sure to verify the information with EPFL's official sources.
Related lectures (1)
Adjunction between Simplicial Sets and Enriched Categories
Covers the adjunction between simplicial sets and simplicially enriched categories, including preservation of inclusions and construction of homotopy categories.
Related publications (10)

Improvements in physics models of AFSI-ASCOT-based synthetic neutron diagnostics at JET

Henri Weisen

New development steps of AFSI-ASCOT based synthetic neutron diagnostics and validation at JET are reported in this contribution. Synthetic neutron diagnostics are important not only in existing tokamaks, where they are used to interpret experimental data, ...
ELSEVIER SCIENCE SA2019

Role of JETPEAK database in validation of synthetic neutron camera diagnostics and ASCOT- AFSI fast particle and fusion product calculation chain in JET

Henri Weisen

JETPEAK is a comprehensive stationary-state database and a work environment for JET diagnostics data, processed data and simulations suitable for a wide variety of analytical tasks. It enables systematic modelling and efficient interpretation of synthetic ...
IOP PUBLISHING LTD2019

Shape staggering of midshell mercury isotopes from in-source laser spectroscopy compared with density-functional-theory and Monte Carlo shell-model calculations

Neutron-deficient Hg177-185 isotopes were studied using in-source laser resonance-ionization spectroscopy at the CERN-ISOLDE radioactive ion-beam facility in an experiment combining different detection methods tailored to the studied isotopes. These includ ...
AMER PHYSICAL SOC2019
Show more
Related people (1)
Related concepts (5)
Technetium-99m
Technetium-99m (99mTc) is a metastable nuclear isomer of technetium-99 (itself an isotope of technetium), symbolized as 99mTc, that is used in tens of millions of medical diagnostic procedures annually, making it the most commonly used medical radioisotope in the world. Technetium-99m is used as a radioactive tracer and can be detected in the body by medical equipment (gamma cameras). It is well suited to the role, because it emits readily detectable gamma rays with a photon energy of 140 keV (these 8.
Gamma ray
A gamma ray, also known as gamma radiation (symbol γ or ), is a penetrating form of electromagnetic radiation arising from the radioactive decay of atomic nuclei. It consists of the shortest wavelength electromagnetic waves, typically shorter than those of X-rays. With frequencies above 30 exahertz (3e19Hz), it imparts the highest photon energy. Paul Villard, a French chemist and physicist, discovered gamma radiation in 1900 while studying radiation emitted by radium.
Cosmic ray
Cosmic rays are high-energy particles or clusters of particles (primarily represented by protons or atomic nuclei) that move through space at nearly the speed of light. They originate from the Sun, from outside of the Solar System in our own galaxy, and from distant galaxies. Upon impact with Earth's atmosphere, cosmic rays produce showers of secondary particles, some of which reach the surface, although the bulk is deflected off into space by the magnetosphere or the heliosphere.
Show more

Graph Chatbot

Chat with Graph Search

Ask any question about EPFL courses, lectures, exercises, research, news, etc. or try the example questions below.

DISCLAIMER: The Graph Chatbot is not programmed to provide explicit or categorical answers to your questions. Rather, it transforms your questions into API requests that are distributed across the various IT services officially administered by EPFL. Its purpose is solely to collect and recommend relevant references to content that you can explore to help you answer your questions.