Properties

Atomic Number	96
CAS Registry Number	7440-51-9
Chemical Symbol	Cm

History

The atomic numberis 96 and the chemical symbol is Cm. The name derives from Pierre and Marie Curie the French physicist and Polish-born French chemist who discovered radium and polonium. It was first synthesized in 1944 by the American scientists at the University of California lab in Berkeley California under the American chemist Glenn T. Seaborg using the nuclear reaction 239Pu( 4He n) 242Cm. Since it is the ninth member of the actinide series curium was named in analogy with its homologue the ninth member of the lanthanide series gadolinium which had been named after the Finnish rare earth chemist Johan Gadolin. The longest half-life associated with this unstable element is 15.6 million year 247Cm.

Holden, Norman E., (2004). History of the origin of the chemical elements and their discoverers. National Nuclear Data Center. Retrieved from http://www.nndc.bnl.gov/content/elements.html