Americium

Americium, ₉₅Am

Americium
Pronunciation	/ˌæməˈrɪsiəm/ ​(AM-ə-RISS-ee-əm)
Appearance	silvery white
Mass number	[243]
Americium in the periodic table
Hydrogen Helium Lithium Beryllium Boron Carbon Nitrogen Oxygen Fluorine Neon Sodium Magnesium Aluminium Silicon Phosphorus Sulfur Chlorine Argon Potassium Calcium Scandium Titanium Vanadium Chromium Manganese Iron Cobalt Nickel Copper Zinc Gallium Germanium Arsenic Selenium Bromine Krypton Rubidium Strontium Yttrium Zirconium Niobium Molybdenum Technetium Ruthenium Rhodium Palladium Silver Cadmium Indium Tin Antimony Tellurium Iodine Xenon Caesium Barium Lanthanum Cerium Praseodymium Neodymium Promethium Samarium Europium Gadolinium Terbium Dysprosium Holmium Erbium Thulium Ytterbium Lutetium Hafnium Tantalum Tungsten Rhenium Osmium Iridium Platinum Gold Mercury (element) Thallium Lead Bismuth Polonium Astatine Radon Francium Radium Actinium Thorium Protactinium Uranium Neptunium Plutonium Americium Curium Berkelium Californium Einsteinium Fermium Mendelevium Nobelium Lawrencium Rutherfordium Dubnium Seaborgium Bohrium Hassium Meitnerium Darmstadtium Roentgenium Copernicium Nihonium Flerovium Moscovium Livermorium Tennessine Oganesson Eu ↑ Am ↓ (Uqe) plutonium ← americium → curium
Atomic number (Z)	95
Group	f-block groups (no number)
Period	period 7
Block	f-block
Electron configuration	[Rn] 5f7 7s2
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 32, 25, 8, 2
Physical properties
Phase at STP	solid
Melting point	1449 K ​(1176 °C, ​2149 °F)
Boiling point	2880 K ​(2607 °C, ​4725 °F) (calculated)
Density (near r.t.)	12 g/cm3
Heat of fusion	14.39 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity	28[1] J/(mol·K)
Vapor pressure P (Pa) 1 10 100 1 k 10 k 100 k at T (K) 1239 1356
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	+2, +3, +4, +5, +6, +7 (an amphoteric oxide)
Electronegativity	Pauling scale: 1.3
Ionization energies	1st: 578 kJ/mol
Atomic radius	empirical: 173 pm
Covalent radius	180±6 pm
Spectral lines of americium
Other properties
Natural occurrence	synthetic
Crystal structure	​double hexagonal close-packed (dhcp)
Thermal conductivity	10 W/(m⋅K)
Electrical resistivity	0.69 µΩ⋅m[1]
Magnetic ordering	paramagnetic
Molar magnetic susceptibility	+1000.0×10−6 cm3/mol[2]
CAS Number	7440-35-9
History
Naming	after the Americas
Discovery	Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James, Leon O. Morgan, Albert Ghiorso (1944)
Isotopes of americium v e
Main isotopes[3] Decay abun­dance half-life (t1/2) mode pro­duct 241Am synth 432.2 y α 237Np SF – 242m1Am synth 141 y IT 242Am α 238Np SF – 243Am synth 7350 y α 239Np SF –
Category: Americium view talk edit | references

Americium is a synthetic chemical element; it has symbol Am and atomic number 95. It is radioactive and a transuranic member of the actinide series in the periodic table, located under the lanthanide element europium and was thus named after the Americas by analogy.^[4][5][6]

Americium was first produced in 1944 by the group of Glenn T. Seaborg from Berkeley, California, at the Metallurgical Laboratory of the University of Chicago, as part of the Manhattan Project. Although it is the third element in the transuranic series, it was discovered fourth, after the heavier curium. The discovery was kept secret and only released to the public in November 1945. Most americium is produced by uranium or plutonium being bombarded with neutrons in nuclear reactors – one tonne of spent nuclear fuel contains about 100 grams of americium. It is widely used in commercial ionization chamber smoke detectors, as well as in neutron sources and industrial gauges. Several unusual applications, such as nuclear batteries or fuel for space ships with nuclear propulsion, have been proposed for the isotope ^242mAm, but they are as yet hindered by the scarcity and high price of this nuclear isomer.

Americium is a relatively soft radioactive metal with silvery appearance. Its most common isotopes are ²⁴¹Am and ²⁴³Am. In chemical compounds, americium usually assumes the oxidation state +3, especially in solutions. Several other oxidation states are known, ranging from +2 to +7, and can be identified by their characteristic optical absorption spectra. The crystal lattices of solid americium and its compounds contain small intrinsic radiogenic defects, due to metamictization induced by self-irradiation with alpha particles, which accumulates with time; this can cause a drift of some material properties over time, more noticeable in older samples.