Copper
hideCopper (pronounced /ˈkɒpər/) is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (Latin: cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. Pure copper is rather soft and malleable and a freshly-exposed surface has a pinkish or peachy color. It is used as a thermal conductor, an electrical conductor, a building material, and a constituent of various metal alloys.
Copper metal and 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 metal as Cyprium, "metal of Cyprus", later shortened to Cuprum. There may be insufficient reserves to sustain current high rates of copper consumption. Some countries, such as Chile and the United States, still have sizable reserves of the metal which are extracted through large open pit mines.
Copper compounds are known in several oxidation states, usually 2+, where they often impart blue or green colors to natural minerals such as turquoise and have been used historically widely as pigments. Copper as both metal and pigmented salt, has a significant presence in decorative art. Copper 2+ ions are soluble in water, where they function at low concentration as bacteriostatic substances and fungicides. For this reason, copper metal can be used as an anti-germ surface that can add to the anti-bacterial and antimicrobial features of buildings such as hospitals. In sufficient amounts, copper salts can be poisonous to higher organisms as well. However, despite universal toxicity at high concentrations, the 2+ copper ion at lower concentrations is an essential trace nutrient to all higher plant and animal life. In animals, including humans, it is found widely in tissues, with concentration in liver, muscle, and bone. It functions as a co-factor in various enzymes and in copper-based pigments.
For more information about Copper, read the full article at
Wikipedia.
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News tagged with copper
Research sheds light on workings of anti-cancer drug
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Nov 26, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The copper sequestering drug tetrathiomolybdate (TM) has been shown in studies to be effective in the treatment of Wilson disease, a disease caused by an overload of copper, and certain metastatic cancers. ...
Researchers invent new method for graphene growth
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (22) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A Cornell research team has invented a simple way to make graphene electrical devices by growing the graphene directly onto a silicon wafer.
Mimicking nature, scientists can now extend redox potentials
Nov 04, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- New insight into how nature handles some fundamental processes is guiding researchers in the design of tailor-made proteins for applications such as artificial photosynthetic centers, long-range ...
Study Yields Surprising New Insight into High-Temp Superconductors
Mar 17, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (16) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Recently, an international group of researchers discovered that the underlying mechanism producing high-temperature superconductivity in a widely studied class of copper-oxygen-based superconductors may be ...
Puzzled Physicists Solve Decade-Long Discrepancies
Oct 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A team led by physicists at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) and Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) have resolved a decade-long puzzle that is set to have huge implications ...
Intel's Light Peak Will Replace Copper Wires
Sep 24, 2009 |
4.5 / 5 (33) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- At the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco Wednesday, the company announced a new optical cable that will be able to transfer data, between electrical devices, starting at speeds of 10 ...
PhD student solves decade-long mystery of magnetism
Oct 27, 2009 |
4.3 / 5 (32) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- A PhD student from the London Centre for Nanotechnology has won a prize for solving a decade-long mystery central to understanding modern magnetic systems.
Graphene: Unravelling the secrets of a magic material
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 15, 2009 |
4.8 / 5 (12) |
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UCL researchers are helping to unlock the secrets of a material that could ultimately be used in a new generation of electronic devices.
Computer predicts reactions between molecules and surfaces, with 'chemical precision'
Chemistry / Analytical Chemistry
Nov 06, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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Good news for heterogeneous catalysis and the hydrogen economy: computers can now be used to make accurate predictions of the reactions of (hydrogen) molecules with surfaces. An international team of researchers, headed by ...
Scientists Use Self-Assembly to Make Molecule-Sized Particles With Patches of Charge
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 20, 2009 |
5 / 5 (2) |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists, chemists and engineers at the University of Pennsylvania have demonstrated a novel method for the controlled formation of patchy particles, using charged, self-assembling molecules ...
Secrets behind high temperature superconductors revealed
Feb 22, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists from Queen Mary, University of London and the University of Fribourg (Switzerland) have found evidence that magnetism is involved in the mechanism behind high temperature superconductivity.
Scientists create large-area graphene on copper: Faster computers, electronics possible
May 07, 2009 |
4.9 / 5 (14) |
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The creation of large-area graphene using copper may enable the manufacture of new graphene-based devices that meet the scaling requirements of the semiconductor industry, leading to faster computers and electronics, ...
Scientists Discover Pentagonal Ice
Apr 07, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at the University of Liverpool have discovered a five-sided ice chain structure that could be used to modify future weather patterns.
Powerful laser sheds light on fast ignition and high energy density physics
Nov 02, 2009 |
3.8 / 5 (5) |
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A new generation of high-energy (>kJ) petawatt (HEPW) lasers is being constructed worldwide to study high intensity laser matter interactions, including fast ignition. Fast ignition is a laser-based technique ...
Putting the Pressure on Iron-Based Superconductors
Mar 05, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Traditionally, magnetism and superconductivity don't mix. For more than 20 years, the only known superconductors that worked at so-called "high" temperatures (above 30 K, or about -406 degrees ...
