Californium most dangerous if taken into the body. In addition, californium-249 and californium-251 can cause tissue damage externally, through gamma ray emission. Ionizing radiation emitted by californium on bone and in the liver can cause cancer. Californium Californium is a radioactive chemical element with symbol Cf and atomic number 98. The element was first synthesized in 1950 at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (then the University of California Radiation Laboratory), by bombarding curium with alpha particles (helium-4 ions). It is an actinide element, the sixth transuranium element to be synthesized, and has the second-highest atomic mass of all the elements that
Californium compounds +3 oxidation states include the sulfide and metallocene. Californium(IV) oxide (black brown, CfO), californium(IV) fluoride (green, CfF) represent the IV oxidation state. The II state is represented by californium(II) bromide (yellow, CfBr) and californium(II) iodide (dark violet, CfI). Californium(IV) oxide (CfO) is a black-brown solid that has a cubic crystal structure with a lattice parameter, the distance between unit cells in the crystal, of 531.0 ± 0.2 pm. Crystals of californium(III) oxide normally have a body-centered cubic symmetry. They convert to a monoclinic form upon heating to about 1400 °C and melt at 1750 °C. Californium(III) chloride (CfCl) is an