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Americium-241 (241 Am, Am-241) is an isotope of americium. Like all isotopes of americium, it is radioactive , with a half-life of 432.2 years . 241 Am is the most common isotope of americium as well as the most prevalent isotope of americium in nuclear waste .
Like all artificial elements, it has no known stable isotopes. The first isotope to be synthesized was 241 Am in 1944. The artificial element decays by ejecting alpha particles. Americium has an atomic number of 95 (the number of protons in the nucleus of the americium atom). Despite 243 Am being an order of magnitude longer lived than 241
Americium compounds with oxidation state +4 and higher are strong oxidizing agents, comparable in strength to the permanganate ion (MnO − 4) in acidic solutions. [59] Whereas the Am 4+ ions are unstable in solutions and readily convert to Am 3+, compounds such as americium dioxide (AmO 2) and americium(IV) fluoride (AmF 4) are stable in the ...
Americium hydroxide is a pink solid [15] which is sparingly soluble in water. [16] Due to self-irradiation, the crystal structure of 241 Am(OH) 3 decomposes within 4 to 6 months (241 Am has a half-life of 432.2 years); for 244 Cm(OH) 3 the same process takes less than a day (244 Cm has a half-life of 18.11 years). [15]
The most important isotopes of these elements in spent nuclear fuel are neptunium-237, americium-241, americium-243, curium-242 through -248, and californium-249 through -252. Plutonium and the minor actinides will be responsible for the bulk of the radiotoxicity and heat generation of spent nuclear fuel in the long term (300 to 20,000 years in ...
Americium-241 capsule as found in smoke detector. The circle of darker metal in the center is americium-241; the surrounding casing is aluminium. Radionuclides are present in many homes as they are used inside the most common household smoke detectors. The radionuclide used is americium-241, which is created by
Of the 26 "monoisotopic" elements that have only a single stable isotope, all but one have an odd atomic number—the single exception being beryllium. In addition, no odd-numbered element has more than two stable isotopes, while every even-numbered element with stable isotopes, except for helium, beryllium, and carbon, has at least three.
Americium-241 has been used as a source of low energy gamma photons, it has been used in some applications such as portable X-ray fluorescence equipment and common household ionizing smoke detectors. Americium-241 is produced from 239