[Chemistry Class Notes] on Difference Between Chemical Reaction and Nuclear Reaction Pdf for Exam

Have you ever helped your mother or father when they cook? If yes, then you must have observed many chemical reactions. Various chemical reactions occur around us such as photosynthesis, baking of bread and cake, burning of coal, burning of LPG etc. Even reaction in respiration is also an example of chemical reaction. On the other hand, nuclear reactions are rare compared to chemical reactions. Generally, we don’t observe nuclear reactions in our daily life because nuclear reactions are accompanied by large enthalpy changes. Nuclear fission releases a tremendous amount of energy while nuclear fusion requires very high temperatures and releases more energy than nuclear fission. The Sun has been a source of energy since ancient times. Do you know what is the reason behind continuous emission of energy from the Sun? Answer is that a nuclear fusion reaction takes place in the Sun which emits a tremendous amount of energy. Let us first discuss what is chemical reaction and nuclear reaction in brief then we will discuss the difference between chemical reaction and nuclear reaction in detail.  

 

What is Chemical Reaction? 

 

A chemical reaction is the process in which reactants react chemically and convert into products by chemical transformation. For example – Respiration – we inhale oxygen which reacts with glucose and produces carbon dioxide, water and energy. The substances which react to form new substance/s in chemical reactions are called reactants while the new substance/s formed are called product/s. Reactants Products

 

In all chemical reactions chemical change/s takes place. It means as burning of coal produces sulfur dioxide and many other gases with fly ash which is a different chemical substance than coal, so it’s a chemical change. While when water (liquid) converts into ice no chemical change takes place, so it is not a chemical reaction. 

 

Chemical reactions are of many types such as addition reaction, combustion reaction, neutralization reaction, displacement reaction, decomposition reaction and precipitation reaction etc. 

 

A chemical reaction is a chemical change. The starting materials ( i.e the reactants) are different from the products. Chemical reactions revolve around the motion of different electrons leading to the formation and breaking of various bonds. There are different reactions. There are various ways of dividing them. Here are some common reaction types: 

 

Chemical reactions occur when bonds are formed or broken between molecules. Why some atoms combine with which other atoms is a complex question, which is overall explained by chemistry. There are many types of chemical bonds. Generally, the more closely overlapping the electron shells are, the stronger their bond is. Chemical reactions happen when heat, radiation and foreign chemicals disturb an equilibrium condition. They cause the breakage and formation of chemical bonds, thereby giving rise to new molecular forms. Chemical reactions can always be classified into a few categories. The simplest is probably the synthesis, where two or more molecules or atoms combine into a new molecule. Substitution is another variety of chemical reaction. It happens when a more reactive atom or molecule ejects a part of another molecule and takes its place. The number of chemical reactions in nature is extremely huge in number. There are more than billions. This is because of a very large molecules which have so many components. The number of possible reactions is large. This is particularly true in organic chemistry, where many atom and molecules exist. Life is possible because of this tremendous amount of possible chemical configurations achievable by organic molecules.

 

What is Nuclear Reaction?

 

In nuclear physics and nuclear chemistry, the reactions in which one or more nuclides are produced by the collisions between atomic nuclei or subatomic particles & atomic nuclei, are called nuclear reactions.

 

Nuclear reactions release a tremendous amount of energy. Nuclear fission and nuclear fusion are two types of nuclear reactions. Humans have been able to control nuclear fission, but the amount of energy released in nuclear fusion is very large and we have not been able to control it till now. Some research is going on, but it is still years away from any practical application. Nuclear fusion takes place in the sun. The sun has been the source of energy since the birth of the solar system. 

 

We use nuclear reactions to generate energy at a large scale. Many power plants run on nuclear reactors in which the nuclear fission reaction takes place. But we need to be very vigilant and careful while using these reactions as energy sources because these reactions can be very dangerous in an uncontrolled way. The Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster is one such example.

 

Nuclear reaction is the change in the identity or characteristics of an atomic nucleus, induced by bombarding it with an energetic particle. A typical nuclear reaction involves two reacting particles, a heavy target nucleus and a light bombarding particle. Ernest Rutherford bombarded nitrogen molecules with alpha particles and identified the more ejected lighter particles. 

 

Difference between a Chemical Reaction and Nuclear Reaction

 

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