Curium Electron Configuration:7(Easy Step-by-Step Guide)

Curium is a transuranic radioactive chemical element with atomic number 96. Let us discuss electron configuration of Curium.

Electronic configuration of curium atom is 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 5s2 5p6 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p6 5f7 6d1 7s2 Curium is a f block element and actinoid series in the periodic table. symbol is “Cm” and shell structure is 2, 8, 18, 32,25,9, 2. Curium is a silvery metal with high melting and boiling point.

We will discuss some interesting facts about Curium electron configuration, configuration notation, diagrams, ground state and excited state electron configuration.

How to write curium electron configuration

Electronic configuration of Cm is [Rn]5f7 6d1 7s2 and the 7 th period element in the periodic table. Distribution of electrons around the nucleus of an atom obeying three set of rules that listed below,

  • Arrangement of an electrons in an orbital by increasing order of energy according to the Aufbau principle the order of electrons fill orbitals looks like1s,2s,2p,3s,3p,4s,3d,4p,5s,4d,5p,6s,4f,5d,6p,7s
  • Electrons in an orbit can hold maximum of two electron with opposite spin according to Pauli’s-Exclusion principle that is one orbit can hold 2maximum of 2 electrons with opposite spin.
  • Electrons first filled all the orbit with similar energy and then they will pair that obey Hund’s rule

Curium electron configuration diagram

Curium electron configuration is [Rn] 5f7 6d1 7s2 where the distribution of electrons among the orbitals is as follows listed below,

  • Each shell can hold a fixed number of electrons there for nth shell can hold 2n2 electrons.
  • Filling of electrons in sub shells of lower energy level to higher energy level follow the n+l rule.
  • Each shell is included of one or more subshells for example first K shell have 1 subshell, L shell have 2 subshells, M shell have 3 subshells, N shell have 4 subshells.
electron configuration using aufbau em 1
Electron configuration diagram using Aufbau principle

Curium electron configuration notation

Curium electron configuration notation is [Rn] 5f7 6d1 7s2

Curium unabbreviated electron configuration

Unabbreviated electron configuration of Curium is

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 5s2 5p6 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p6 5f7 6d1 7s2

Ground state curium electron configuration

Ground state electron configuration of curium is

1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d10 4s2 4p6 4d10 5s2 5p6 4f14 5d10 6s2 6p6 5f7 6d1 7s2

Excited state of curium electron configuration

Excited state curium electron configuration is [Rn] 5f7 6d2 7s1

Ground state curium orbital diagram

The ground state electron configuration of Cm is [Rn] 5f7 6d1 7s2 electrons filled in the orbitals are listed and ground state orbital diagram is drawn below,

  • Cm electrons distributed among the shell in following way 2,8,18,32,25,9,2
  • In ground state order of filling electrons in lowest energy to highest energy orbitals
  • The order of fillings of S, P, D, F, orbits can have maximum efficiency of 2 electrons, 6 electrons, 10 electrons and 14 electrons.
Screenshot 20221208 194857Cm orbit em 2
Ground state curium orbital diagram

Conclusion

Curium is one of the transuranic elements in the periodic table and it is half filled and stable. Cm is a hard metal, and this will be artificially produced in nuclear reactors. All of the curium isotopes are radioactive such as curium -242, curium-244 Cm is used for x-ray spectrometer for quantitative analysis.

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