Americium (Am) Fun Facts
"The Smoke Detector, the unsung hero protecting every home from fire."
The true essence of Americium (Am) on the molecular frontier.
Americium is a silvery-white, radioactive metal.
Americium is found as the tiny radioactive source inside a household smoke detector.
Americium�s discovery was first announced on the children�s radio show Quiz Kids.
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A very small amount (about 0.29 micrograms) of americium-241 is used in nearly all common household smoke detectors. It works by ionizing the air between two electrodes.
It was synthesized by Glenn T. Seaborg's team at the University of California, Berkeley, and was humorously nicknamed 'pandemonium' before it received its official name.
It is named after the Americas, in analogy to the element europium which was named after Europe.
During the Cold War, the element's discovery was kept secret and was only revealed to the public on a children's radio show in 1945.
It is a byproduct of plutonium production in nuclear reactors.