32 Facts About Copper

Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu and atomic number 29.

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 can occur in nature in a directly usable metallic form .

Copper used in buildings, usually for roofing, oxidizes to form a green verdigris .

Copper is sometimes used in decorative art, both in its elemental metal form and in compounds as pigments.

Related searches

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.

Copper is one of a few metallic elements with a natural color other than gray or silver.

Copper is produced in massive stars and is present in the Earth's crust in a proportion of about 50 parts per million .

Copper is the 25th most abundant element in Earth's crust, representing 50 ppm compared with 75 ppm for zinc, and 14 ppm for lead.

Copper is one of the most important constituents of silver and karat gold solders used in the jewelry industry, modifying the color, hardness and melting point of the resulting alloys.

Copper acetylide is highly shock-sensitive but is an intermediate in reactions such as the Cadiot-Chodkiewicz coupling and the Sonogashira coupling.

Copper occurs naturally as native metallic copper and was known to some of the oldest civilizations on record.

Copper was first mined in ancient Britain as early as 2100 BC.

Copper metallurgy was flourishing in South America, particularly in Peru around 1000 AD.

Great Copper Mountain was a mine in Falun, Sweden, that operated from the 10th century to 1992.

Copper is used in roofing, currency, and for photographic technology known as the daguerreotype.

Copper was used in Renaissance sculpture, and was used to construct the Statue of Liberty; copper continues to be used in construction of various types.

Intergovernmental Council of Copper Exporting Countries, formed in 1967 by Chile, Peru, Zaire and Zambia, operated in the copper market as OPEC does in oil, though it never achieved the same influence, particularly because the second-largest producer, the United States, was never a member; it was dissolved in 1988.

Copper is used mostly as a pure metal, but when greater hardness is required, it is put into such alloys as brass and bronze .

Copper wire is used in power generation, power transmission, power distribution, telecommunications, electronics circuitry, and countless types of electrical equipment.

Copper plays an important role in these renewable energy systems.

Copper has been used since ancient times as a durable, corrosion resistant, and weatherproof architectural material.

Copper has excellent brazing and soldering properties and can be welded; the best results are obtained with gas metal arc welding.

Copper is biostatic, meaning bacteria and many other forms of life will not grow on it.

Related searches

Copper doorknobs are used by hospitals to reduce the transfer of disease, and Legionnaires' disease is suppressed by copper tubing in plumbing systems.

Copper is commonly used in jewelry, and according to some folklore, copper bracelets relieve arthritis symptoms.

Copper proteins have diverse roles in biological electron transport and oxygen transportation, processes that exploit the easy interconversion of Cu and Cu.

Copper is essential in the aerobic respiration of all eukaryotes.

Copper is found in many superoxide dismutases, proteins that catalyze the decomposition of superoxides by converting it to oxygen and hydrogen peroxide:.

Copper is an essential trace element in plants and animals, but not all microorganisms.

Copper is absorbed in the gut, then transported to the liver bound to albumin.