What is Copper atom ?

   

 Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu 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 pinkish-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 can occur in nature in directly usable metallic form (native metals).  This led to very early human use in several regions, from c.8000BC.  Thousands of years later, it was the first metal to be smelted from sulfide ores, c.5000BC, the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c.4000BC, and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c.3500BC. 

     In the Roman era, copper was mined principally on Cyprus, the origin of the name of the metal, form aes cyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to cuprum(Latin).Coper (Old English ) and copper were derived from this, the later spelling first used around 1530.  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.