Curium

Curium

Today, Curium is mainly used for further basic scientific reseach. Curium is used as a source of alpha-particles used in X-ray spectrometers on robotic like spacecrafts. Also, Curium is used in things like Pacemakers. Before, only small quantities were produced. But now, it can easily be made in nuclear reactors.

Curium is harmful. Due to it's radioactivity, it can stop blood cells by destroying bone marrow.

Element Symbol: Cm Atomic Number: 96Atomic Mass: 247.0 AMUMelting Point: 1,347 °CBoiling Point: 3,110 °CState: SoildNumber of Protons/Electrons: 96 Number of Neutrons: 151

Curium is a transuranic chemical element that is part of the Actinides series. Therefore, it is not a natural element. Curium is a highly radioactive element that can only be artifically made. The appearance of Curium is silvery-white. It is also pronounced (CURE-EE-UM).

What is Curium?

Basic Information about Curium

Fact 1: Even though Curium comes after Americium in the Periodic Table Of Elements, Curium was actually the third synthetic transuranium element to be found.Fact 2: Curium is so intensely radioactive, it can cause cancer if accumulated into the human body.

What is Curium used for?

Curium was named after a wife and husband by the names of Marie and Pierre Curie, hence the name Curium. The reason it was named after Marie and Pierre Curie was because they were both physicists and chemists who did work on radioactivity (Curium is radioactive) .Also, Pierre and Marie both won a nobel prize, making Marie the first women to ever receive such a prize.

Where does the name Curium come from?

How is Curium discovered?

Fun Facts!!

The element, Curium, was discovered in July 1944 by Glenn T. Seaborg, Ralph A. James and Albert Ghiorso while working at the University of California, Berkeley. Curium is not a natural element and is very radioactive. At the time, Plutonium was a new element. So, Curium was discovered when Glenn and his crew put a piece of the newly discovered element, Plutonium, into a cyclotron with Alpha Particles. So, it is not a natural element.