Orbital electron capture

Orbital electron capture

Orbital electron capture refers to the process by which radioactive nuclei capture an orbital electron outside the nucleus to convert a proton in the nucleus into a neutron and emit a neutrino. The condition for the orbital electron capture of the i-th layer to occur is that the rest energy of the mother nuclear atom minus the rest energy of the child nuclear atom must be greater than the binding energy of the i-th electron of the child nuclear atom. Since K-layer electrons are closest to the nucleus, they are more likely to be captured by the nucleus than other layers of orbital electrons. Therefore, orbital electron capture is often referred to as K-electron capture. All nuclei that decay with β + can produce orbital electron capture. Generally, the higher the atomic number of the nucleus, the longer the half-life, and the greater the change in nuclear spin accompanied by nuclear decay, the higher the probability of orbital electron capture.