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Americium is a manufactured element that is not found in nature. The radioactive metal was created at the University of Chicago Metallurgical Lab (now the Argonne National Laboratory) in 1944 by American (hence, the name) scientists Glenn Seaborg, Ralph James, Leon Morgan and Albert Ghiorso, through a process of bombarding plutonium with high energy electrons until it changes form several times, then using beta decay to achieve the final result.

Americium is used in smoke detectors, and is also a source of gamma rays, but has few other practical applications.

Americium

Atomic No: 95
Atomic Weight: 243

Periodic Table: 7
Classification: Metal
Group: Actinide

Half-Life: 432.2 years

Decays into neptunium-239 by alpha decay.


Answer

Americium was first obtained by Glenn T. Seaborg, Leon O. Morgan, Ralph A. James and Albert Ghiorso in 1944 (University of Chicago) as a result of some nuclear reactions: Pu 239----(n,gamma)---Pu 240-----(n,gamma)--- Pu 241---- beta rays---- Am 241

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15y ago

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