Curium(III) chloride or curium trichloride is a actinide chemical compound with the chemical 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 in H2O 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:
2 CmN + 3 CdCl2 → 2 CmCl3 + Cd3N2
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