Curium(III) chloride

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

Structure
Curium(III) chloride has a 9 coordinate tricapped trigonal prismatic geometry.

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:


 * CmOCl + 2HCl -> CmCl3 + H2O

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


 * 2Cm + 6HCl -> 2CmCl3 + 3H2

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:


 * 2 CmN + 3 CdCl2 -> 2 CmCl3 + Cd3N2