What are the chemical properties of curium?

Although curium follows americium in the periodic system, it was actually known before americium and was the third transuranium element to be discovered. read more

Curium. Named after Pierre and Marie Curie. Curium is a hard, brittle, silvery metal that tarnishes slowly in dry air at room temperature. Curium does not occur naturally; it is typically produced artificially in nuclear reactors through successive neutron captures by plutonium and americium isotopes. read more

Curium is called a transuranium element because it follows uranium on the periodic table. The periodic table is a chart that shows how chemical elements are related to each other. Uranium has an atomic number of 92, so any element with a higher atomic number is a transuranium element. read more

Curium is a silvery metal. All of its isotopes are radioactive. For chemical research, curium-242 (163-day half-life) has been supplanted by curium-244 (18.1-year half-life) and the still longer-lived isotope curium-248, which are built up from plutonium-239 by neutron irradiation. read more