Copper

Copper, ₂₉Cu
General properties
Appearance	red-orange metallic luster
Standard atomic weight (Ar, standard)	63.546(3)
Copper in the periodic table
	nickel ← copper → zinc
Atomic number (Z)	29
Group	group 11
Period	period 4
Element category	transition metal
Block	d-block
Electron configuration	[Ar] 3d10 4s1
Electrons per shell	2, 8, 18, 1
Physical properties
Phase at STP	solid
Melting point	1357.77 K (1084.62 °C, 1984.32 °F)
Boiling point	2835 K (2562 °C, 4643 °F)
Density (near r.t.)	8.96 g/cm3
when liquid (at m.p.)	8.02 g/cm3
Heat of fusion	13.26 kJ/mol
Heat of vaporization	300.4 kJ/mol
Molar heat capacity	24.440 J/(mol·K)
Atomic properties
Oxidation states	−2, +1, +2, +3, +4 (a mildly basic oxide)
Electronegativity	Pauling scale: 1.90
Ionization energies	1st: 745.5 kJ/mol; 2nd: 1957.9 kJ/mol; 3rd: 3555 kJ/mol; (more);
Atomic radius	empirical: 128 pm
Covalent radius	132±4 pm
Van der Waals radius	140 pm
	Spectral lines
	Spectral lines
Miscellanea
Crystal structure	face-centered cubic (fcc)
Speed of sound thin rod	(annealed); 3810 m/s (at r.t.)
Thermal expansion	16.5 µm/(m·K) (at 25 °C)
Thermal conductivity	401 W/(m·K)
Electrical resistivity	16.78 nΩ·m (at 20 °C)
Magnetic ordering	diamagnetic
Magnetic susceptibility	−5.46·10−6 cm3/mol
Young's modulus	110–128 GPa
Shear modulus	48 GPa
Bulk modulus	140 GPa
Poisson ratio	0.34
Mohs hardness	3.0
Vickers hardness	343–369 MPa
Brinell hardness	235–878 MPa
CAS Number	7440-50-8
History
Naming	after Cyprus, principal mining place in Roman era (Cyprium)
Discovery	Middle East (9000 BC)
Main isotopes of copper
β−	64Zn
	view; talk; edit; \| references \| in Wikidata

Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a reddish-orange color. Copper is used as a conductor of heat and electricity, as a building material, and as a constituent of various metal alloys, such as sterling silver used in jewelry, cupronickel used to make marine hardware and coins, and constantan used in strain gauges and thermocouples for temperature measurement.

Copper is one of the few metals that occur in nature in directly usable metallic form (native metals) as opposed to needing extraction from an ore. This led to very early human use, from c. 8000 BC. It was the first metal to be smelted from its ore, c. 5000 BC, the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000 BC and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c. 3500 BC.

In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, the origin of the name of the metal, from aes сyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to сuprum, from which the words copper (English), cuivre (French), cobre (Spanish), Koper (Dutch) and Kupfer (German) are all derived. The commonly encountered compounds are copper(II) salts, which often impart blue or green colors to such minerals as azurite, malachite, and turquoise, and have been used widely and historically as pigments. Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris (or patina). Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments. Copper compounds are used as bacteriostatic agents, fungicides, and wood preservatives.

Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the respiratory enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the iron-complexed hemoglobin in fish and other vertebrates. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, and bone. The adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight.