Curium purity

The analysis of the composite sample from the same series of curium-americium oxide production runs is presented in Table II. The content of carbon, the major impurity, is inferred rather than directly analyzed. The analyses of curium-americium oxide products generally reflect the purity of the feed, except for carbon and sulfur from the resin and a few potential corrosion products. 

By thermal dissociation of intermetallic compounds with noble metals (Pt, Ir), the volatile metals americium, curium and californium have been obtained in high purity (4,5) ... 

Curium. The vapor pressure of high-purity Cm-244 metal was measured by Ward, Ohse and Reul (18), in both the solid and liquid phases. This work is reported as definitive in Ref. 19 however, the Tables A1.14 are improperly calculated and the AH298 value given is incorrect. Their value quoted in the discussion is 92.6 + 1-0 kcal/mol, and the thermodynamic data for Cm should be recalculated on the basis of the correct heats and entropies. 

Chemicals of normal reagent-grade purity suffice for the separation of analytes that do not occur in nature there should be no important impact on the analyses of samples of neptunium, plutonium, americium, or curium, provided reagent volumes are kept small so that mass is not introduced into the final samples. For all other analytes, reagents that... 

The question of atomic weights deserves a brief comment. Many of the radionuclides listed in Table 14.2 can be obtained in high isotopic purity. Compounds of curium, for example, will have different formula weights depending on the particular curium isotope present in the compound. Atomic and molecular weights must be calculated from the relative abundandes of isotopes present in a given sample. 

---