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Article: Copper
- Article from:
- Chemistry: Foundations and Applications
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2004 The Gale Group, Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Copper
melting point:
1,084.62
°
C
boiling point: 2,927
°
C
density: 8.96 g/cm
3
most common ions: Cu
+
, Cu
2+
Copper was first used by humans more than 10,000 years ago. A copper pendant discovered in what is now northern Iraq has been dated to about 8700 b.c.e. For nearly five millennia copper was the only
metal
known to humans. Early copper artifacts
—
first decorative, then utilitarian
—
were undoubtedly hammered out from "native copper," pure copper found in conjunction with copper-bearing ores in a few places around the world. By 5000 b.c.e., the dawn of
metallurgy
had arrived, as evidence exists of the
smelting
of simple copper oxide ores such as malachite ...