Topic summary
Free neutron
Extracted from the Wikipedia article Neutron.
Free neutron
Neutrons are tightly bound in atomic nuclei, requiring MeV sized energies to escape. Once free, neutrons decay in a quarter of an hour on average. Thus free neutrons are rare compared to other components of atoms: electrons are freed by heating a light bulb filament and protons are freed in rapid hydrogen gas combustion. Moreover, once freed in say a nuclear reactor, the charge-free neutrons are difficult to direct, confine, or detect.