Copper conducts heat and electricity well and can be drawn into wires, making it central to motors and electrical systems. Combining copper with tin produces bronze. Copper also occurs in biological chemistry, including oxygen-transporting complexes in some animals, connecting electrical materials with living systems.
FROM ELEMENT TO APPLICATION
AN ELEMENT IN CONTEXT
Why does a useful copper connection require more than copper's ability to conduct electricity?
Elemental copper in conductive components
FOLLOW THIS RELATIONSHIP
Form the conducting path
Copper is drawn or shaped into a conductor, connecting its electrical conductivity with the physical route that current must follow in a device.
Explore the model (optional)
Spatial model
INTERACTIVE 3D108 visible sites
Face-centered cubic · close packingDrag to rotate · scroll or pinch to zoom
A repeated local arrangement builds a crystal. The connecting rods identify nearest-neighbor geometry, not discrete molecules in a metal.
What this representation means
Idealized crystal fragment. Spheres and spacing are schematic; cropped boundary sites have fewer displayed neighbors than interior sites.
Native copper gave early communities metal to shape before sophisticated processing developed. Archaeological beads record its long use, while combination with tin produced bronze for tools and other objects. Mining and extraction extended access beyond natural nuggets. Copper's history connects direct working of a found material with deliberate chemical extraction and the design of useful .
Prehistory
Copper objects made
Early copper beads provide evidence of metalworking many millennia before modern chemistry.
Bronze Age
Alloy use expanded
Combining copper with tin supported widespread manufacture of bronze tools and objects.
Copper sometimes occurs as native metal, but it is also present in such as malachite, cuprite, and chalcopyrite. These sources include , , and . Their different chemistry means that obtaining usable metal may involve different processing routes, rather than a universal extraction step for every copper-bearing rock.
Copper is reddish, malleable, and , with useful thermal and electrical conductivity. These properties allow it to be formed into wires and other components. Its compounds differ from the metal in color and reactivity, while alloys combine copper with additional elements to obtain further material properties.
Each section links its supporting references. Descriptions and diagrams were authored for this atlas. Source checks completed. Source checks dated 2026-09-06.
CITE THIS PAGE
Family labels and the group-3 layout are teaching conventions. A table position does not establish an unknown bulk property. Electronic configurations refer to neutral atoms; ions and material environments require their own account.
Read each reference property together with its units, conditions and the reference information below.
Not yet recorded: electron affinity, second ionization energy, ground-state term symbol, van der waals radius, thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, electrical resistivity, crystal structure, lattice parameter a, space group, abundance in seawater, abundance in the universe, annual production, supply-risk listing, hazard classification, biological role, cas registry number, pubchem cid, wikidata item. These families are declared and awaiting an ingestion run against the source each names; they are listed here rather than shown as empty rows.
Physical
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Phase at 20 °C
solid
293.15 K, 101.325 kPa
Melting point in K
1358 K
at standard pressure unless noted
Boiling point in K
2835 K
101.325 kPa
Density in g/cm³
8.96 g/cm³
solids and liquids at 293 K; gases at 273 K and 101.325 kPa
Atomic and electronic
Intended reference: Pauling electronegativity scale · Widely tabulated; original in The Nature of the Chemical Bond
Electronegativity in Pauling
1.9 Pauling
Pauling scale
First ionization energy in kJ/mol
745.5 kJ/mol
gas-phase neutral atom, ground state
Covalent radius in pm
132 pm
single-bond covalent radius
Common oxidation states
+1, +2
states met in ordinary compounds; not exhaustive
Occurrence and identity
Intended reference: CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics · CRC Press
Abundance in the crust in mg/kg
60 mg/kg
upper continental crust, mass fraction
Has stable isotopes
Yesderived
Discovery year
Not recorded
WHERE IT SITS AMONG ITS NEIGHBORS
Electronegativity across period 4
Cu 1.9 Pauling · Copper
Electronegativity across period 4. Exact values.
K
0.82
Ca
1
Sc
1.36
Ti
1.54
V
1.63
Cr
1.66
Mn
1.55
Fe
1.83
Co
1.88
Ni
1.91
Cu
1.9
Zn
1.65
Ga
1.81
Ge
2.01
As
2.18
Se
2.55
Br
2.96
Kr
3
Electronegativity down group 11
Cu 1.9 Pauling · Copper
Electronegativity down group 11. Exact values.
Cu
1.9
Ag
1.93
Au
2.54
The trend uses the same reference-property values as the periodic table. Elements with no recorded value are left out of the line rather than drawn at zero.
