Bond Rupture and Nonrupture in the Beta Decay of Carbon—14 Studied by Double Isotopic Labeling

The effect of beta decay of a constituent carbon atom of the ethane molecule has been studied by a technique of double labeling, with C14H3C14H3. The radioactivity of one of the carbon atoms served as a tracer for the entity which results from the decay of the other to nitrogen when the chemical bond is preserved. It was found that in 47% of the cases the molecular entity was not disrupted but survived as methyl amine, C14H3NH2. This result is in good agreement with theoretical expectations.