Curium(III) chloride explained

Curium(III) chloride is the chemical compound with the formula CmCl₃.

Structure

Curium(III) chloride has a 9 coordinate tricapped trigonal prismatic geometry.^[1]

Synthesis

Curium(III) chloride can be obtained from the reaction of hydrogen chloride gas with curium dioxide, curium(III) oxide, or curium(III) oxychloride at a temperature of 400-600 °C:

It can also be obtained from the dissolution of metallic curium in dilute hydrochloric acid:^[2]

This method has a number of disadvantages associated with the ongoing processes of hydrolysis and hydration of the resulting compound in an aqueous solution, making it problematic to obtain a pure product using this reaction.

It can be obtained from the reaction of curium nitride with cadmium chloride:^[3]

Notes and References

1. Book: Greenwood . N. N. . Chemistry of the Elements . Earnshaw . A. . 1997 . 2nd . Butterworth, UK . 1270.
2. Wallmann . J. C. . Fuger . J. . Peterson . J. R. . Green . J. L. . Crystal structure and lattice parameters of curium trichloride . . 1 November 1967 . 29 . 11 . 2745–2751 . 10.1016/0022-1902(67)80013-7 . 97334114 . 3 July 2023 . en . 0022-1902.
3. Hayashi . Hirokazu . Takano . Masahide . Otobe . Haruyoshi . Koyama . Tadafumi . Syntheses and thermal analyses of curium trichloride . Journal of Radioanalytical and Nuclear Chemistry . July 2013 . 297 . 1 . 139–144 . 10.1007/s10967-012-2413-7 . 95792512.