Tritium Decay- Missing Electron
Discussion
3 1 T → 3 2 He1+ + e− + νe
After buying a tritium glow in the dark keychain as a stocking filler I was reading the decay equation on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
I understand that tritium containing 2 neutrons, 1 proton and 1 electron changes into Helium 3 which contains 2 protons, 1 neutron and 2 electrons.
The above equation though appears to be 1 electron short. It shows production of a Helium 3 ion. Does the helium 3 ion pick up an electron from somewhere? What am I missing? (chemistry grad class of 2004 & not used much since!)
After buying a tritium glow in the dark keychain as a stocking filler I was reading the decay equation on wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tritium
I understand that tritium containing 2 neutrons, 1 proton and 1 electron changes into Helium 3 which contains 2 protons, 1 neutron and 2 electrons.
The above equation though appears to be 1 electron short. It shows production of a Helium 3 ion. Does the helium 3 ion pick up an electron from somewhere? What am I missing? (chemistry grad class of 2004 & not used much since!)
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