Copper
Name of student: Alfiya Ospanova
Tutorial group: G
Copper is one of the earliest elements explored by humanity. Due to the special red shade it was easy to find in ancient times. The metal was named according to place where it was found, the Cyprus islands. Copper produced in massive stars and spread in the world as minerals like chalcocite and chalcopyrite (sulfide of copper), azurite and malachite (carbonate of copper), cuprite (oxide of copper).
The atomic number of copper is 29 and the atomic mass is 63.546, which means that mentioned element has 29 electrons, 29 protons and 34 neutrons. Moreover, it has 29 isotopes. Some of them are resistant and other are radioactive. Copper known as a transition metal and located in the eleven’s column and on the fourth period in periodic table. It has 4 shells and in the valence shell there are 11 electrons. Copper has 1 s orbital electron and full d-orbital, which explains the ability being ductile and conductivity.
According to physical properties, copper is reddish brown metal. It has very high melting and boiling points, which are 1083⁰C and 2595⁰C. The density of metal is 8.96 g·cm−3. Besides, copper is stable to corrosion and fully recyclable. Recycling occurs without losing of qualities. At room temperature the state of copper is solid and usually it is softer than zinc. Also, copper owns a considerable number of qualities which make it exclusive. The main of them is ductility of element. It can mix with metals such as gold, silver and lead. In spite of this, copper has a great ability to conduct electricity and heat. According to statistics, copper is the second element which has high thermal conductivity. Therefore, copper is widespread in industrial world to make wires and heating systems.
Confirming to chemical characteristics, copper has low reactivity. The reaction between copper and atmospheric oxygen occurs very slowly, and in the result forms