God bless Americium for protecting America with smoke detectors. Americium is Metallic silver and is a solid metal, if your smoke detector goes off it will not settle.

 

History Uses
General Information Hazards
Properties Isotopes to Half Lifes Data Table
Glossary Bibliography

 

History

            American scientists, Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan and Albert Ghiorso, discovered americium in 1944.  This was during World War II.  Their discovery took place in a lab in the University of Chicago.  Americium was named after America because it was the country it was discovered in.  Americium was the fourth transuranic element to be discovered.  This discovery was released in 1945 on a children’s quiz show.

Uses
            Americium is used in smoke detectors and can provide gamma rays.  Americium can be produced in kilogram quantities.  It has been used as a source of radiation for radiography.  Without Americium then it would be impossible too contact the fire department if you don’t know that there is a fire in your house.  It can be used for analyzing bones, kind of like a cat scan.

 

General Information
Americium’s atomic symbol is Am and its atomic number is 95.  Americium has an atomic mass of 243, however that can change based on the different isotopes.  Americium is very reactive because Am-243 has only one valence electron.  Americium has 95 protons and neutrons and it has 148 electrons.  Americium was created by shooting Plutonium-239 with high energy neutrons.  This was changed into Pluonium-240.  This is bombarded to make Plutonium-241, which changes into Americium-241 from beta decay. 

Hazards
            Americium is radioactive so it’s a biohazard when it is disposed.  Although Americium is extremely toxic, it has saved more lives that it has killed because it is in smoke detectors.  Another reason why it isn’t a problem is that it is made in a lab, and will hardly ever leave a lab.

Properties
            Americium is a whitish silver metal that is very reactive and is an alpha-emiter.  This metal is a solid and its melting point is 1,175 degrees Celsius.  Americium’s density is 13.6 grams per cc.  Americium is in a hexagonal crystal structure.  Americium is extremely heavy with an atomic mass of 243.

Isotopes to Half Lifes
Isotope
Half Life
Am-241
430 years
Am-242m
150 years
Am-242
16 years
Am-243
7,400 years
Np-239
2.4 days

 

When #94, Plutonium, is bombarded it created Americium. To find out more about Plutonium Click Here.

 

Glossary
Bombarded to subject the pressure of fast moving praticles.
Cat Scan an image created by computer made tomography.
Gamma Rays a particle of light emitted spontaneously by a radioactive substance.
Half Life the amount of time it takes for half of something to go through a process.
Radiography

the process of a gamma ray photograph.
Transuranican an element with a higher atomic number than Uranium.

 

Bibliography
 

"Actinides." Actinet. 2005-20009. 3 Feb. 2009 <http://www.actinet-network.org/overview>.
"Americium." Argonne National Laboratory. Aug. 2005. 9 Feb. 2009 <http://www.ead.anl.gov/pub/doc/Americium.pdf>.
"Americium." Chemistry: Periodic Table and More. 9 Feb. 2009 <http://www.chemicool.com/elements/americium.html>.
"Americium." Periodic Table. 5 Feb. 2009 <http://periodic.lanl.gov/elements/95.html>.
"Americium." Wikipedia. 3 Feb. 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Americium>.
Gagnon, Steve. "The Element Americium." Jefferson Lab. 3 Feb. 2009 <http://education.jlab.org/itselemental/ele095.html>.
Hahn, Richard. "Americium." World Book Encyclopeida. 2007.
"Inauguration Day." CSVF Blog. 20 Jan. 2009. 3 Feb. 2009 <http://www.csvfblog.org/2009/01/20/inauguration-day/>.
"News." News Reports. 7 Feb. 2009 <http://www.eastsidehose.com/News.htm>.
Newton, David. "Americium." Chemical Elemets. 1999.
"Properties of Americum." 9 Feb. 2009 <http://web1.caryacademy.org/chemistry/rushin/StudentProjects/ElementWebSites/americium/properties.htm>.
Stwertka, Albert. "Americium." A Guide to the Elements. 2002.
"What's at stake." Care 2. 3 Feb. 2009 <http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/share_detail/4461/41621/>.


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