History of Nuclear Chemistry

History of Nuclear Chemistry

The history of Nuclear chemistry dates back to 1895, with the discovery of X- rays by William Roentgen. In early 1896, Henri Becquerel was carrying out a series of experiments on fluorescence. He had used photographic film between two pieces of paper.

When he developed the photographic film, he found that it had the same appearance as if it had been exposed to light. And after this, by accident, he developed the photographic plates, which was kept in the same drawer as Uranium. To his surprise, the plate had been blackened. He thought that it was a new type of fluorescence. But, actually, he had come across a phenomenon of radioactivity. So, accidentally, radioactivity was discovered by Henri Becquerel.

The name radioactivity, was coined some time later by Marie Curie. She won the Nobel prize for her discovery in 1903 with Henri Becquerel and Pierre Curie. Thereby evolved the branch of chemistry called Nuclear chemistry.

The discovery of radioactivity also brought into account many other processes, such as fission and fusion, which again were used as a source of energy in many reactors. And also, with the discovery of radioactivity and other phenomenon related to radioactive elements, many new elements were brought into light.