| Discovery date | 1944 |
| Discovered by | Glenn Seaborg and colleagues |
| Origin of the name | Curium is named in honour of Pierre and Marie Curie. |
| Allotropes |
|
Cm
Curium
96
[247]
| Group | Actinides | Melting point | 1345°C, 2453°F, 1618 K |
| Period | 7 | Boiling point | Unknown |
| Block | f | Density (g cm−3) | 13.51 |
| Atomic number | 96 | Relative atomic mass | [247] |
| State at 20°C | Solid | Key isotopes | 243Cm, 248Cm |
| Electron configuration | [Rn] 5f76d17s2 | CAS number | 7440-51-9 |
| ChemSpider ID | 22415 | ChemSpider is a free chemical structure database | |
Image explanation
The image shows a satellite in orbit around the Earth, reflecting the use of curium in satellite technology.
Appearance
A radioactive metal that is silver in colour. It tarnishes rapidly in air.
Uses
Curium has been used to provide power to electrical equipment used on space missions.
Biological role
Curium has no known biological role. It is toxic due to its radioactivity.
Natural abundance
Curium can be made in very small amounts by the neutron bombardment of plutonium in a nuclear reactor. Minute amounts may exist in natural deposits of uranium. Only a few grams are produced each year.
Curium was first made by the team of Glenn Seaborg, Ralph James, and Albert Ghiorso in 1944, using the cyclotron at Berkeley, California. They bombarded a piece of the newly discovered element plutonium (isotope 239) with alpha-particles. This was then sent to the Metallurgical Laboratory at the University of Chicago where a tiny sample of curium was eventually separated and identified. However, news of the new element was not disclosed until after the end of World War II. Most unusually, it was first revealed by Seaborg when he appeared as the guest scientist on a radio show for children on 11 November 1945. It was officially announced the following week.
| Atomic radius, non-bonded (Å) | 2.450 | Covalent radius (Å) | 1.68 |
| Electron affinity (kJ mol−1) | Unknown |
Electronegativity (Pauling scale) |
Unknown |
|
Ionisation energies (kJ mol−1) |
1st
578.082
2nd
-
3rd
-
4th
-
5th
-
6th
-
7th
-
8th
-
|
||
| Common oxidation states | 4, 3 | ||||
| Isotopes | Isotope | Atomic mass | Natural abundance (%) | Half life | Mode of decay |
| 243Cm | 243.061 | - | 29.1 y | α | |
| 5.5 x 1011 y | sf | ||||
| 244Cm | 244.063 | - | 18.1 y | α | |
| 1.32 x 107 y | sf | ||||
| 245Cm | 245.065 | - | 8.48 x 103 y | α | |
| 1.4 x 1012 y | sf | ||||
| 246Cm | 246.067 | - | 4.76 x 103 y | α | |
| 1.8 x 107 y | sf | ||||
| 247Cm | 247.070 | - | 1.56 x 107 y | α | |
| 248Cm | 248.072 | - | 3.48 x 105 y | α | |
|
Specific heat capacity (J kg−1 K−1) |
Unknown | Young's modulus (GPa) | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Shear modulus (GPa) | Unknown | Bulk modulus (GPa) | Unknown | |||||||||||
| Vapour pressure | ||||||||||||||
| Temperature (K) |
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| Pressure (Pa) |
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| Listen to Curium Podcast |
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Transcript :
Chemistry in its element: curium(Promo) You're listening to Chemistry in its element brought to you by Chemistry World, the magazine of the Royal Society of Chemistry. (End promo) Meera Senthilingam This week's element launches us deep into outer space. Richard Corfield Curium is a member of a group of elements, the transuranic elements, that - with the exception of plutonium and neptunium - do not occur naturally on Earth. Curium is a hard, brittle, silvery radioactive metal that tarnishes slowly and which can only be produced in nuclear reactors. The isotope 242Cu was produced in 1944 by Glenn T Seaborg, Ralph A James and Albert Ghioso by bombarding 239Pu with alpha particles in the 60-inch Cyclotron at Berkeley University in the US. Like another synthetic element, americium, the discovery of curium was intimately bound up with the work of the Manhattan Project which Seaborg and his team were working on at the time of their discovery. This meant that neither curium nor americium could be announced to the world until after the end of the war. Seaborg revealed their discovery in November 1945 on the American TV show Quiz Kids just five days before the official unveiling of the new elements at a meeting of the American Chemical Society. Curium is named in honour of Pierre and Marie Curie, who pioneered the study of radioactivity in the final days of the 19th century. Nineteen radioisotopes of curium are known to exist, the first of which, 242Cu was isolated in the hydroxide form in 1947 and in its elemental form in 1951. The most stable radioisotope is 247Cm which has a half-life of 1.56 × 107 years. 248Cm has a half-life of 3.40 × 105 years, 250Cm a half-life of 9000 years, and 245Cm a half-life of 8500 years. All of the remaining radioactive isotopes have half-lives with a duration that less than 30 years, and the majority of these have half-lives that are less than a month. Curium has two main uses: as a fuel for Radioisotope Thermal Generators (RTGs) on board satellites, deep space probes, planetary surface rovers and in heart pacemakers, and as a alpha emitter for alpha particle X-Ray spectrometry, again particularly in space applications. RTGs are electrical generators which produce power from radioactive decay. Usually heat released by the decay of a suitable radioactive material is converted into electricity by the Seebeck effect -where an electrical current is generated at the junctions between two different metals - using an array of thermocouples. However, in some cases such as the Mars Exploration Rovers, the power is used directly to warm the vehicle. For spaceflight use, the fuel must be radioactive enough to produce large quantities of energy per unit of mass and volume. 242Cu produces about 3W of heat energy from radioactive decay per gram which compares favourably with the plutonium and americium sources commonly used in other Radioisotope Thermal Generator applications. Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometers (APXS) are devices that analyse the chemical element composition of a sample from back-scattered alpha particles. Using Rutherford's calculations of the conservation of nuclear energy and linear momentum it is possible to calculate the mass of the nucleus hit by the alpha particle and from this the energy spectrum of the material being analysed. Alpha Particle X-Ray Spectrometers tend to be confined to chemical analyses required during space missions since, although curium is both compact and power efficient, it is also a hazardous radioactive material. APXSs have a long history in space exploration being first used during the later Surveyor (Surveyor 5-7) missions that immediately preceded the Apollo Moon landings. Since the days of Surveyor alpha particle analysers have been included on many other missions including Mars Pathfinder, Mars 96, the Rosetta mission to the comet Comet 67 P/Churyumov- Gerasimenko and the Mars Exploration Rovers. Back on Earth most curium found in the environment today was generated by the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons, which ceased worldwide by 1980. More localised pockets of curium contamination have occurred through accidents at weapons production facilities. As already mentioned, curium is hazardous. It becomes concentrated in bone marrow and because of its significant alpha activity can induce cancers. Despite its rarity and hazards it seems appropriate that an element first synthesised during a global conflict that saw the development of the vehicles that would one day take us to the Moon and beyond is now so pivotal to space exploration, providing our robotic pioneers not only with power but also the ability to analyse extraterrestrial materials as well. Meera Senthilingam So, a crucial element in the field of space exploration. That was science writer Richard Corfield bringing us the radio active chemistry of curium. Now next week, the element named after the creator of the periodic table. Hayley Birch Brought up in Russia, Mendeleev was the sort of person who, it seems, was incapable of sticking to one discipline and as well as serving as the director of the Russian institute for weights and measures, had a hand in developing the Russian oil industry. Given all this, it's perhaps less surprising than it ought to be that he conceived of the periodic table on the same day that he was supposed to be inspecting a cheese factory. Meera Senthilingam So, quite the multi tasker. And to find out the creation, chemistry and history of the Element named after Mendeleev, Mendelevium, join Hayley Birch in next week's Chemistry in its element. Until then, I'm Meera Senthilingam and thank you for listening. (Promo) Chemistry in its element is brought to you by the Royal Society of Chemistry and produced by thenakedscientists.com. There's more information and other episodes of Chemistry in its element on our website at chemistryworld.org/elements. (End promo)
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Visual Elements images and videos
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
© Murray Robertson 1998-2017.
Data
W. M. Haynes, ed., CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Raton, FL, 95th Edition, Internet Version 2015, accessed December 2014.
Tables of Physical & Chemical Constants, Kaye & Laby Online, 16th edition, 1995. Version 1.0 (2005), accessed December 2014.
J. S. Coursey, D. J. Schwab, J. J. Tsai, and R. A. Dragoset, Atomic Weights and Isotopic Compositions (version 4.1), 2015, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, accessed November 2016.
T. L. Cottrell, The Strengths of Chemical Bonds, Butterworth, London, 1954.
Uses and properties
John Emsley, Nature’s Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements, Oxford University Press, New York, 2nd Edition, 2011.
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility - Office of Science Education, It’s Elemental - The Periodic Table of Elements, accessed December 2014.
Periodic Table of Videos, accessed December 2014.
Supply risk data
Derived in part from material provided by the British Geological Survey © NERC.
History text
Elements 1-112, 114, 116 and 117 © John Emsley 2012. Elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 © Royal Society of Chemistry 2017.
Podcasts
Produced by The Naked Scientists.
Periodic Table of Videos
Created by video journalist Brady Haran working with chemists at The University of Nottingham.
