Curium(III) chloride or Curium Trichloride is a actinide chemical compound with the chemical formula CmCl<sub>3</sub>. It is also a salt of the actinide Curium (Cm). It is also radioactive, due to the radioactivity of Curium. Inhaling or ingesting can have fatal consequences.
Curium(III) chloride has a 9 coordinate tricapped trigonal prismatic geometry.
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 ðC:
It can also be obtained from the dissolution of metallic Curium in dilute hydrochloric acid:
This method is complicated by the ongoing processes of hydrolysis and hydration of the resulting compound in an aqueous solution, making it problematic to obtain a pure product.
It can be obtained from the reaction of curium nitride with cadmium chloride:
Ingesting Curium can have fatal effects. primarily due to its radioactivity, it can cause radiation poisoning due to being a potent alpha emitter. Inhaling can also be dangerous due to its potential to cause lung cancer.