radio-chemistry question

[bob000555]

What happens when an atom in a molecule undergoes radioactive decay? Say for example you have trisodium-22 citrate, and the sodium decays to neon. What are you left with? Neon gas and a citrate radical? Something else?

[John Cuthber]

A neon atom, a more or less free positron and a citrate ion.

The positron is kicked out at a huge energy and will plough through the material bouncing round until it loses most of that energy. Then it will anihilate whatever electron it hits and form a radical ion. If it happened to destroy an electron that was part of a citrate ion it would produce a citrate radical, but it's more likely to make H2O+.