(Indeed, countless lives a year are saved in the United States because of smoke detectors.) The amount of this isotope in a smoke detector is very small. One gram of americium oxide made with americium-241 will make 5,000 smoke detectors. ...
SymbolAmA synthetic, silvery-white, radioactive metallic element of the actinide series that is produced artificially by bombarding plutonium with neutrons. Americium is used as a source of alpha particles for smoke detectors and gamma rays for industrial gauges. Its most stable isotope has a half-...
What is the daughter isotope? Quick Reference.An isotope produced by the radioactive decay of the nuclei of another isotope(the parent isotope). For example, lead-206 is a daughter isotope of uranium-238, which has a half-life of 4.5 billion years. Why do smoke detectors expire? If you ...
What is It Used for Small amounts of americium dioxide are used in smoke detectors and alarms [1, 6]. Several isotopes of americium are now investigated on their use as a possible power source for deep space vehicles [1, 3]. It could potentially become the favored fuel source and replace...
used as a tracer in radiochemical applications and analysis. Americium-241 has wider use as a source in ionization chambers in smoke detectors, discharge arresters, and industrial gages. It is also used as a source of alpha particles for production of neutrons in AmBe neutron sources (UNSCEAR,...