The use of copper

Copper is the earliest metal used by humans. As early as in the prehistoric era, people began to open open-pit copper mines, and used the acquired copper to make weapons, equipment, and other utensils. The use of copper had a profound impact on the progress of early human civilization. Copper is a metal found in the earth's crust and oceans. The content of copper in the earth's crust is about 0.01%. In individual copper deposits, the content of copper can reach 3% to 5%. Most of the copper in nature exists as a compound, copper minerals. Copper minerals and other minerals are aggregated into copper ores, and the mined copper ores are converted to copper concentrates with higher copper grades.

First, performance

Copper has good physical and chemical properties such as electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, corrosion resistance, and ductility. Conductive properties and thermal conductivity are second only to silver, and pure copper can be drawn into very fine copper wire to make very thin copper foil. The fresh section of pure copper is rose red, but the appearance of copper oxide film on the surface, the appearance of purple red, it is often called copper.

In addition to pure copper, copper can be alloyed with tin, zinc, nickel, etc. to synthesize alloys with different characteristics, namely bronze, brass, and white copper. The addition of zinc to pure copper (99.99%) is called brass. For example, a common brass tube with 80% copper content and 20% zinc content is used in power plant condensers and automotive radiators; nickel is added as white copper. The rest are called bronze. In addition to zinc and nickel, all copper alloys incorporating other metal elements are called bronze. What elements are added are called elements. The main bronzes are tin phosphor bronze and beryllium bronze. For example, tin bronze has a long history of application in China and is used to cast bells, tripods, musical instruments and sacrificial vessels. Tin bronze can also be used as bearings, bushings and wear parts.

Different from the conductivity of pure copper, with the help of alloying, the strength and corrosion resistance of copper can be greatly improved. Some of these alloys have good wear resistance, good casting properties, and some have good mechanical properties and corrosion resistance.

Second, use

Since copper has the above excellent properties, it has a wide range of uses in the industry. Including the electrical industry, machinery manufacturing, transportation, construction and other aspects. At present, copper is mainly used in the electric and electronic industry in the manufacture of wire, telecommunication cables and other finished products such as electric motors, generator rotors, and electronic instruments and meters. This amount accounts for about half of the total industrial demand. Copper and copper alloys play an important role in computer chips, integrated circuits, transistors, and printed circuit boards. For example, transistor leads are made of a highly conductive, highly thermally conductive chromium-zirconium copper alloy. Recently, IBM, an internationally renowned computer company, has used copper instead of aluminum in silicon chips, marking the latest breakthrough in the application of semiconductor technology to the oldest metal.