Experiment to determine the half life of protactinium-234m

Experiments to measure properties of radioactive materials, like this one, are mandatory practicals for many physics specifications. So this is good practice for OCR physics A, AQA A-Level physics, Edexcel A-Level physics, CPAC, PAG, practical endorsement.

Relevant concepts: radiation, radioactive material, half-life, radioactive decay, geiger müller tube, random decay, data logger.

[KarbineKyle]

Thanks for the reply! Since I live in the USA, and these kits aren't available here, and they'd be too expensive! Well, the raw materials came, I _FINALLY_ made a Pa-234m generator! I made it at home. I used 2.5 g of uranyl nitrate, 7.5 mL of distilled water (to dissolve it), 17.5 mL of conc. hydrochloric acid (ACS grade, 37.5%), and 25 mL of methyl isobutyl ketone, and carefully added this to a 60 mL leakproof polypropylene bottle, and it works spectacularly! I use the _SEI Inspector USB_ Geiger-Müller counter with the _Observer_ software, and I get about 120 CPM for background from the Pa-234m generator, and about 3500 CPM at about 2 cm. I get A LOT of counts/activity from mine! It works _great!_ It has internal datalogging and live datalogging via a PC, and it also has an auto-averaging function, and when that is activated, it gives an even more precise result! The exponential decay curve is _SO_ smooth and precise! I like the clamp stand you have, but I'm currently using it for my X-ray setup. Anyways, thank you very much for sharing this video and cheers from the USA! 👍

[MoniqueYeung]

Hi could you explain why we measure the background count rate without the protactinum 234 generator? Normally in school we measure the background count rate without any radioactive source. Thanks

[KarbineKyle]

Very nice! I know these kits aren't available in the US where I live, however I'm finally going to build one! I'm just waiting for the materials! It's a shame uranyl nitrate is so hard to get nowadays, and if you find it, it's often expensive! This is a great way to determine half-life! Pa-234m emits a hard beta particle (98.2%/decay) with an endpoint energy of 2.268 MeV! Perfect! Thank you for sharing this video! 👍

[rostedchikeenn]

please do a vid 2 sson my exams coming up