JEE Main & Advanced Physics Nuclear Physics And Radioactivity Binding Energy Curve

It is the graph between binding energy per nucleon and total number of nucleons (i.e. mass number A)

(1) Some nuclei with mass number \[A<20\] have large binding energy per nucleon than their neighbour nuclei. For example \[_{2}H{{e}^{4}},{{\,}_{4}}B{{e}^{8}},{{\,}_{6}}{{C}^{12}},{{\,}_{8}}{{O}^{16}}\text{ and}{{\text{ }}_{\text{10}}}N{{e}^{20}}\]. These nuclei are more stable than their neighbours.

(2) The binding energy per nucleon is maximum for nuclei of mass number \[A=56\] \[{{(}_{26}}F{{e}^{56}})\]. It's value is 8.8 MeV per nucleon.

(3) For nuclei having \[A>56,\] binding energy per nucleon gradually decreases for uranium \[(A=238),\] the value of binding energy per nucleon drops to 7.5 MeV.