Abstract: | Independent yields of 82Br, 96Nb, 112Ag, 130I,132I, 134I, 134mCs, 135mCs, 136Cs and upper limitof independent yield for 140La in the fission of 232Th induced by neutrons of 14 MeVwere determined with nuclear chemistry techniques. The correlation of the fractionalindependent yields in the high yield mass chains with a Gaussian curve of charge dis-tribution has been investigated using various mass formulae and charge distributionhypotheses. The results indicate that the hrpothesis of minimum potential energy witha shell-effected mass equation gives the best fit to the data. The width parameter Cof the charge distribution is found to be 0.80. The large deviations of 32Br and 112Ag from the Gaussian curve seem to show that the low yield in very asymmetric fissioncan be attributed to a narrower width of charge distribution, whereas the high yield insymmetric fission may correlate with a wider width. The trends have been explainedqualitatively in terms of a liquid drop model. There is no evidence for 40-proton subshell effect on the fission yield. |