Privyet, /sci/. /k/ here.

It's very common to use glow in the dark night sights on pistols, which are usually made out of a vial of tritium coated with some variety of phosphorescent material. My understanding is that the tritium releases alpha particles upon decaying, exciting the phosphor, right? Seems to work pretty well.

Problem is I have a gun with permanently fixed sights too small to drill a hole into to affix a tritium vial, and the costs of milling a proper removable sight to install a premade tritium sight are too much for my poorfag ass.

What I do know is that Americium is easily and cheaply sourced from smoke detectors, and emits alpha particles. If I were to grind the americium into a powder, mix it with a suitable phosphorescent material (Zinc Sulfide? Strontium Aluminate?), then mix it into an epoxy to prevent it from leaking, I could paint this onto my sights and make them glow even without light, correct?

Furthermore, I have the following questions:
>Is there a way to dissolve americium in an evaporative liquid, so I can mix the americium and the phosphorescent material thoroughly to ensure they're combined well and emit as much light as possible once the solution has dried back into a powder? Should I instead just try to form a chunk of americium and coat it in phosphorescent material, and epoxy that into my pistols sights?
>Does the mass of americium commonly found in a smoke detector emit enough gamma radiation to pose a significant cancer or infertility risk? I carry my pistol within a holster with the tip right near my benis, would it be wise for me to lead-line the holster?
>will this even emit enough light to be visible? Am I entirely confused on how radioluminesence works?
>what phosphorescent chemical will provide me the brightest reaction, and how do I procure it?

Thank you all in advance, I'm sure you 200 iq lads can help a chemistrylet /k/ommando such as myself.