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.
This text uses material from Wikipedia and is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.
News tagged with copper
Intel's Light Peak Will Replace Copper Wires
Sep 24, 2009 |
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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 |
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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.
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 ...
Researchers invent new method for graphene growth
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Nov 10, 2009 |
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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.
New process extracts pure hydrogen from contaminant in unrefined oil
Aug 25, 2008 |
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A commercial-scale process to extract and reuse pure hydrogen from the hydrogen sulfide that naturally contaminates unrefined oil, including oil sands, is one step closer to reality thanks to a collaboration between the U.S. ...
Sub-atomic-scale Writing Using a Quantum Hologram Sets New Size Record (Video)
Jan 28, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Physicists have set a new world record for the smallest writing, with features of letters as small as 0.3 nanometers, or roughly one third of a billionth of a meter. The accomplishment demonstrates ...
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.
Study Yields Surprising New Insight into High-Temp Superconductors
Mar 17, 2009 |
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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 ...
Spinons -- confined like quarks
Nov 29, 2009 |
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The concept of confinement is one of the central ideas in modern physics. The most famous example is that of quarks which bind together to form protons and neutrons. Now Prof. Bella Lake from Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (Germany) ...
Scientists unwrap the elements of life
Oct 22, 2008 |
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Researchers at Newcastle University have taken a step forward in our understanding of how the fundamental building blocks of life are put together.
Scientists create large-area graphene on copper: Faster computers, electronics possible
May 07, 2009 |
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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 prove unconventional superconductivity in new iron arsenide compounds
Jan 09, 2009 |
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(PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists at U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory used inelastic neutron scattering to show that superconductivity in a new family of iron arsenide superconductors cannot ...
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.
Graphene: Unravelling the secrets of a magic material
Nanotechnology / Nanomaterials
Oct 15, 2009 |
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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.
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 ...
