Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic numb

er 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity.
Pure copper is soft and malleable; a freshly exposed surface has a reddish-oran
ge color. It is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, a building material
, and a constituent of various metal alloys.
The metal and its alloys have been used for thousands of years. In the Roman era
, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, hence the origin of the name of the me
tal as ?yprium (metal of Cyprus), later shortened to ?uprum. Its compounds are c
ommonly encountered as copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors
to minerals such as azurite and turquoise and have been widely used historicall
y as pigments. Architectural structures built with copper corrode to give green
verdigris (or patina). Decorative art prominently features copper, both by itsel
f and as part of pigments.
Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because i
t is a key constituent of the respiratory enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. I
n molluscs and crustacea copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin
, which is replaced by the iron-complexed hemoglobin in fish and other vertebrat
es. The main areas where copper is found in humans are liver, muscle and bone.[3
] Copper compounds are used as bacteriostatic substances, fungicides, and wood p
reservatives.
Contents [hide]
1 Characteristics
1.1 Physical
1.2 Chemical
1.3 Isotopes
1.4 Occurrence
2 Production
2.1 Reserves
2.2 Methods
2.3 Recycling
3 Alloys
4 Compounds
4.1 Binary compounds
4.2 Coordination chemistry
4.3 Organocopper chemistry
4.4 Copper(III) and copper(IV)
5 History
5.1 Copper Age
5.2 Bronze Age
5.3 Antiquity and Middle Ages
5.4 Modern period
6 Applications
6.1 Wire and cable
6.2 Electronics and related devices
6.3 Electric motors
6.4 Architecture
6.5 Antibiofouling applications
6.6 Antimicrobial applications
6.7 Folk medicine
6.7.1 Compression Clothing
6.8 Other uses
7 Degradation
8 Biological role
8.1 Dietary needs
8.2 Copper-based disorders
9 See also
10 References

11 Notes
12 Further reading
13 External links
Characteristics
Physical
A copper disc (99.95% pure) made by continuous casting; etched to reveal crystal
lites.
Copper just above its melting point keeps its pink luster color when enough ligh
t outshines the orange incandescence color.
Copper, silver and gold are in group 11 of the periodic table, and they share ce
rtain attributes: they have one s-orbital electron on top of a filled d-electron
shell and are characterized by high ductility and electrical conductivity. The
filled d-shells in these elements do not contribute much to the interatomic inte
ractions, which are dominated by the s-electrons through metallic bonds. Unlike
in metals with incomplete d-shells, metallic bonds in copper are lacking a coval
ent character and are relatively weak. This explains the low hardness and high d
uctility of single crystals of copper.[4] At the macroscopic scale, introduction
of extended defects to the crystal lattice, such as grain boundaries, hinders f
low of the material under applied stress, thereby increasing its hardness. For t
his reason, copper is usually supplied in a fine-grained polycrystalline form, w
hich has greater strength than monocrystalline forms.[5]
The softness of copper partly explains its high electrical conductivity (59.6106
S/m) and thus also high thermal conductivity, which are the second highest among
pure metals at room temperature.[6] This is because the resistivity to electron
transport in metals at room temperature mostly originates from scattering of el
ectrons on thermal vibrations of the lattice, which are relatively weak for a so
ft metal.[4] The maximum permissible current density of copper in open air is ap
proximately 3.1106 A/m2 of cross-sectional area, above which it begins to heat ex
cessively.[7] As with other metals, if copper is placed against another metal, g
alvanic corrosion will occur.[8]
Together with caesium and gold (both yellow), and osmium (bluish), copper is one
of only four elemental metals with a natural color other than gray or silver.[9
] Pure copper is orange-red and acquires a reddish tarnish when exposed to air.
The characteristic color of copper results from the electronic transitions betwe
en the filled 3d and half-empty 4s atomic shells
the energy difference between t
hese shells is such that it corresponds to orange light. The same mechanism acco
unts for the yellow color of gold and caesium.[4]