AmericiumCompounds of Americium
Note for compounds: there are valence numbers of americium compounds such as trivalent and tetravalent. "Tetra" and "tri" are two of the common prefixes used in chemistry. Valence is basically a capacity or the outer level.
There are only a few notable compounds of americium. In short the only compounds found to exist are americium dioxide (AmO2), americium bromide (AmBr3), americium chloride (AmCl3), americium fluoride (AmF3), and americium iodide (AmI3).
Interesting Fact: Americium can be an aqueous compound and dissolves readily in HCl. Trivalent americium is the most common form in an aqueous solution. It appears as a color ranging from pink to almost yellow depending on the concentration. Yellow is the more concentrated form.
Americium dioxide is perhaps the most important of the americium compounds, because it is used to create the other compounds of americium. Americium dioxide (AmO2) can be obtained by igniting most forms of the trivalent solution of Americium.
There are also solid states of americium compounds, which are most commonly found as tetravalent compounds. These tetravalent compounds are the result of AmO2 being treated with fluoride. The result of combining these elements is americium fluoride (AmF3).
Sometimes some pretty neat colors can appear with pentavalent and hexavalent americium compounds. Pentavalent and hexavalent compounds of americium are a bit more complex than the previous compounds. They are only obtained when americium is doubly oxygenated in a solution. Hexavalent americium is yellow or light brown in color when it is in dilute perchloric acid or nitric acid (HNO3). Americium is green in fluoride solutions and dark brown in sulfuric acid (H2SO4). A deep red color can be found in carbonate and bi-carbonate solutions. Yep, americium can do some pretty weird stuff.
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Americium
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