Americium

Americium is a radioactive chemical element with the symbol Am and the atomic number 95. In chemistry, it is placed in a group of metal elements named the actinides. Americium is a transuranic element (Transuranic means after uranium as all the elements used after uranium are man-made). Americium does not exist in nature and has to be made by people. It has a silver color. Americium is made by bombarding a plutonium target with neutrons.

It was the fourth transuranic element to be discovered. It was named for America, like Francium was named for France.^[1][2]

The longest half life of any type of americium is 7370 years.^[3]

Uses

Americium is used in most smoke detectors. The level of radioactivity is not enough to cause cancer, so it is safe to live in a place where smoke detectors with americium are used.

References

1. Kostecka, Keith (2008). "Americium – From Discovery to the Smoke Detector and Beyond" (PDF). Bull. Hist. Chem. 33 (2): 89–93. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-10-09.
2. "C&En: It's Elemental: The Periodic Table - Americium".
3. "Americium Video - The Periodic Table of Videos - University of Nottingham". www.periodicvideos.com. Retrieved 2022-04-19.