Curium compounds

[2] Black CmO2 can be obtained by burning curium oxalate (Cm2(C2O4)3), nitrate (Cm(NO3)3), or hydroxide in pure oxygen.

[3][4] Upon heating to 600–650 °C in vacuum (about 0.01 Pa), it transforms into the whitish Cm2O3:[3][5] Or, Cm2O3 can be obtained by reducing CmO2 with molecular hydrogen:[6] Also, a number of ternary oxides of the type M(II)CmO3 are known, where M stands for a divalent metal, such as barium.

[20][21] Formation of the complexes of the type Cm(n-C3H7-BTP)3 (BTP = 2,6-di(1,2,4-triazin-3-yl)pyridine), in solutions containing n-C3H7-BTP and Cm3+ ions has been confirmed by EXAFS.

[22][23] Dissolved Cm3+ ions bind with many organic compounds, such as hydroxamic acid,[24] urea,[25] fluorescein[26] and adenosine triphosphate.

The resulting complexes show strong yellow-orange emission under UV light excitation, which is convenient not only for their detection, but also for studying interactions between the Cm3+ ion and the ligands via changes in the half-life (of the order ~0.1 ms) and spectrum of the fluorescence.