INTRODUCTION
Cerium is a silvery white, metallic, radioactive element, and one of the transuranium (elements that is after uranium on the periodic table) in the actinide series of the periodic table.
It is made by bombarding the synthetic element plutonium with accelerated particles. Curium is a heavy metal similar in properties to uranium, plutonium, and americium.
BASIC INFORMATIONS
- Atomic Number
- 96
- Atomic Mass
- 247
- Ionic radius
- 0.97
- Ionization energy
- N/A
- Electronic config
- 2,8,18,32,25,9,2
- Principal Valency
- +2
- Density g/cm³
- 13.5
- Melting point °C
- 1340
- Boiling point °C
- 3110
- Type of Element
- Metal
- Electronegativity
- N/A
- Element Category
- Actinide series
- Appearance
- Silvery white solid
- Block
- f-block
- Period
- 9
- Group
- 11
- No of Isotopes
- 21
- Occurrence
- Artificially Made
- Abundance in ppm
- Nil
- Year of Discovery
- 1944
EXTRACTION
It is obtain by electrolysis of its fused salts or reducing its halides with calcium
OXIDATION STATES
+4,+3 (Amphoteric)
MAJOR SOURCE
It is produced artificially from plutonium.
HALF LIFE
Curium-242 = 162 days, Curium-244 = 17.6 years
ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE
* Curium-244, may be used without heavy shielding as sources of thermoelectric power for use in satellites and crewless space probes.
* Curium-242 taken to the Moon by the Surveyor 5, 6, and 7 spacecraft was used to revealed the kind and quantity of many chemical elements in the soil.
