Determine the amount of energy released during the reaction given below: ⁷ Li + p + . The atomic mass of ⁷ Li is 7.0160 u and that of ⁴ He is 4.0026 u .

Step-by-step solution

The nuclear reaction can be written using atomic masses as: ⁷ Li + ¹ H 2 ⁴ He Taking the atomic mass of hydrogen ¹ H as 1.00783 u , the total mass of the reactants is: m_ reactants = m(⁷ Li ) + m(¹ H ) m_ reactants = 7.0160 u + 1.00783 u = 8.02383 u The total mass of the products is: m_ products = 2 m(⁴ He ) m_ products = 2 4.0026 u = 8.0052 u The mass defect m is: m = m_ reactants - m_ products m = 8.02383 u - 8.0052 u = 0.01863 u The energy released Q is calculated by converting the mass defect into energy (using