Technetium-99m, a "metastable" nuclide of

Tc is produced by the reaction

? → 99mTc + β

What is the starting nuclide?

1. 100Mo

2. 100Tc

3. 100Ru

4. 99Mo

5. 99Ru

6. 99Tc

In beta decay, a neutron is transformed into a proton via emission of an electron. This means that the total nucleon number remains the same; however, the proton number is increased by one (and the neutron number decreases by one). Therefore, the parent atom must also have mass number 99 but be of one less atomic number.

The atomic number of Tc is 43 and proton number 42 is Mo. Therefore, the answer is:

99Mo