Question

Given the isotope 2Fes, which has an actual mass of 55.934939 u: a) b) Determine the mass defect of the nucleus in atomic mass units. Determine the average binding energy per nucleon in units of million electron-volts.

Answer 1

Answer:

Mass defect of each iron-56 nuclei:

The binding energy per nucleon of Iron-56 is approximately 8.6 MeV.

Explanation:

According to the physics constants table on Chemistry Libretexts:

• Proton rest mass: $\rm 1.0072765\;amu$;
• Neutron rest mass: $\rm 1.0086649\; amu$.
• Speed of light in vacuum: $\rm 2.99792458\times 10^{8}\;m\cdot s^{-1}$.
• Charge on an electron: $\rm 1.6021765\times 10^{-19}\;C$.

a)

The mass defect of a nucleus is equal to the sum of the mass of its parts (protons and, in most cases, neutrons) minus the mass of the nucleus.

The atomic number of iron is 26. There are 26 protons in each iron-56 nucleus. The mass number 56 indicates that there are 56 nucleons (neutrons and protons) in each iron-56 nucleus. The other $56 - 26 = 30$ particles are neutrons.

The mass of protons and neutrons in each iron-56 nucleus will be:

$\rm 26 \times 1.0072765 + 30 \times 1.0086649 = 56.464736\;amu$.

According to this question, the mass of an iron-56 nucleus is equal to 55.934939 amu. The mass defect will be

$\rm 56.464736 - 55.934939 = 0.514197\;amu$.

b)

By the mass-energy equivalence,

$E = m\cdot c^{2}$.

Refer to this equation, the speed of light in vacuum $c^{2}$ is the conversion factor between mass $m$ and energy $E$. The value of $c$ is usually given only in SI units $\rm m\cdot s^{-1}$. Accordingly, the value of $c^{2}$ will be in the SI unit $\rm m^{2}\cdot s^{-2} = J\cdot kg^{-1}$.

Convert million electron-volts to joules.

One electron-volt is equal to the electrical work done moving an electron across a potential difference of one volt.  

$\begin{aligned}\rm 1 MeV&= \rm 10^{6}\; eV\\ &= \rm (10^{6}\times 1.6021765\times 10^{-19}\;C)\times 1\; V\\&=\rm 1.6021765\times 10^{-19}\;J\end{aligned}$.

Convert the unit of $c^{2}$ from $\rm m^{2}\cdot s^{-2} = J\cdot kg^{-1}$ to the desired $\rm MeV \cdot amu^{-1}$:

$\begin{aligned}c^{2} &= \rm {\left(2.99792458\times 10^{8}\;m\cdot s^{-1}\right)}^{2}\\&=\rm 8.987551787\times 10^{16}\; m^{2}\cdot s^{-2}\\ &= \rm 8.987551787\times 10^{16}\; J\cdot kg^{-1}\\&= \rm 8.987551787\times 10^{16}\; J\cdot kg^{-1}\times \frac{1\;MeV}{1.6021765\times 10^{-13}\;J}\times \frac{1\times 10^{-3}\;kg}{6.022142\times 10^{23}\;amu}\\&\approx \rm 931.602164\;MeV\cdot amu^{-1}\end{aligned}$.

Total binding energy in each iron-56 nucleus:

$\begin{aligned}E &= m\cdot c^{2}\\&= \rm 0.514197\;amu \times 9.31602164\;MeV\cdot amu^{-1} \\&=\rm 479.027038\; MeV \end{aligned}$.

Again, the mass number 56 indicates that there are 56 nucleons in each iron-56 nucleus. The binding energy per nucleon of iron-56 $\mathrm{^{56}Fe}$ will be:

$\displaystyle \rm \frac{479.027038\; MeV}{56} \approx 8.6\; MeV$.