Curium - Cm General Information Discovery Curium was discovered by G.T. Seaborg, R.A. James and A. Ghiorso in 1944 in California, USA. Appearance Curium is a radioactive, silvery metal. Source Curium can be made in very small amounts by the neutron bombardment of plutonium. Minute amounts may exist in natural deposits of uranium. Uses Curium has little use outside research, as it is only available in extremely small quantities. Biological Role Curium has no known biological role. It is toxic due to its radioactivity. General Information Curium is attacked by oxygen, steam and acids, but not by alkalis. Several oxides and halides of this element have been prepared.

	Physical Information
	Atomic Number		96
	Relative Atomic Mass (12C=12.000)		247 (radioactive)
	Melting Point/K		1610
	Boiling Point/K		not available
	Density/kg m-3		13300 (293K)
	Ground State Electron Configuration		[Rn]5f76d17s2

	Key Isotopes
	nuclide	242Cm	244Cm	247Cm	248Cm
	atomic mass	242.06	244.06	247.07
	natural abundance	0%	0%	0%	0%
	half-life	163 days	17.6 yrs	1.6x107 yrs	4.7x105 yrs

Other Information
Enthalpy of Fusion/kJ mol-1		n/a
Enthalpy of Vaporisation/kJ mol-1		n/a
Oxidation States
main	Cm+3
others	Cm+2, Cm+4

	Ionisation Energies/kJ mol-1
	M - M+	581
	M+ - M2+
	M2+ - M3+
	M3+ - M4+
	M4+ - M5+
	M5+ - M6+
	M6+ - M7+
	M7+ - M8+
	M8+ - M9+
	M9+ - M10+