Copper vs. Iron

By Jaxson

Main Difference

The main difference between Copper and Iron is that the Copper is a chemical element with the atomic number of 29 and Iron is a chemical element 26 or simple substance composed thereof.

  • Copper

    Copper is a chemical element with symbol Cu (from Latin: cuprum) 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 reddish-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 occur in nature in directly usable metallic form (native metals) as opposed to needing extraction from an ore. This led to very early human use, from c. 8000 BC. It was the first metal to be smelted from its ore, c. 5000 BC, the first metal to be cast into a shape in a mold, c. 4000 BC and the first metal to be purposefully alloyed with another metal, tin, to create bronze, c. 3500 BC.

    In the Roman era, copper was principally mined on Cyprus, the origin of the name of the metal, from aes сyprium (metal of Cyprus), later corrupted to сuprum, from which the words copper (English), cuivre (French), cobre (Spanish), Koper (Dutch) and Kupfer (German) are all derived. The 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.

    Copper is essential to all living organisms as a trace dietary mineral because it is a key constituent of the respiratory enzyme complex cytochrome c oxidase. In molluscs and crustaceans, copper is a constituent of the blood pigment hemocyanin, replaced by the iron-complexed hemoglobin in fish and other vertebrates. In humans, copper is found mainly in the liver, muscle, and bone. The adult body contains between 1.4 and 2.1 mg of copper per kilogram of body weight.

  • Iron

    Iron is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from Latin: ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal in the first transition series. It is by mass the most common element on Earth, forming much of Earth’s outer and inner core. It is the fourth most common element in the Earth’s crust. Its abundance in rocky planets like Earth is due to its abundant production by fusion in high-mass stars, where it is the last element to be produced with release of energy before the violent collapse of a supernova, which scatters the iron into space.

    Like the other group 8 elements, ruthenium and osmium, iron exists in a wide range of oxidation states, −2 to +7, although +2 and +3 are the most common. Elemental iron occurs in meteoroids and other low oxygen environments, but is reactive to oxygen and water. Fresh iron surfaces appear lustrous silvery-gray, but oxidize in normal air to give hydrated iron oxides, commonly known as rust. Unlike the metals that form passivating oxide layers, iron oxides occupy more volume than the metal and thus flake off, exposing fresh surfaces for corrosion.

    Iron metal has been used since ancient times, although copper alloys, which have lower melting temperatures, were used even earlier in human history. Pure iron is relatively soft, but is unobtainable by smelting because it is significantly hardened and strengthened by impurities, in particular carbon, from the smelting process. A certain proportion of carbon (between 0.002% and 2.1%) produces steel, which may be up to 1000 times harder than pure iron. Crude iron metal is produced in blast furnaces, where ore is reduced by coke to pig iron, which has a high carbon content. Further refinement with oxygen reduces the carbon content to the correct proportion to make steel. Steels and iron alloys formed with other metals (alloy steels) are by far the most common industrial metals because they have a great range of desirable properties and iron-bearing rock is abundant.

    Iron chemical compounds have many uses. Iron oxide mixed with aluminium powder can be ignited to create a thermite reaction, used in welding and purifying ores. Iron forms binary compounds with the halogens and the chalcogens. Among its organometallic compounds is ferrocene, the first sandwich compound discovered.

    Iron plays an important role in biology, forming complexes with molecular oxygen in hemoglobin and myoglobin; these two compounds are common oxygen transport proteins in vertebrates. Iron is also the metal at the active site of many important redox enzymes dealing with cellular respiration and oxidation and reduction in plants and animals. A human male of average height has about 4 grams of iron in his body, a female about 3.5 grams. This iron is distributed throughout the body in hemoglobin, tissues, muscles, bone marrow, blood proteins, enzymes, ferritin, hemosiderin, and transport in plasma.

Wikipedia
  • Copper (noun)

    A reddish-brown, malleable, ductile metallic element with high electrical and thermal conductivity, symbol Cu, and atomic number 29.

  • Copper (noun)

    Something made of copper.

  • Copper (noun)

    The reddish-brown colour/color of copper.

    “color panel|BB5836”

  • Copper (noun)

    A copper coin.

  • Copper (noun)

    A large pot, often used for heating water or washing clothes over a fire. In Australasia at least, it could also be a fixed installation made of copper, with a fire underneath and its own chimney. Generally made redundant by the advent of the washing machine.

    “Mum would heat the water in a copper in the kitchen and transfer it to the tin bath.”

    “I explain that socks can’t be boiled up in the copper with the sheets and towels or they shrink.”

  • Copper (noun)

    A police officer.

  • Copper (adjective)

    Made of copper.

  • Copper (adjective)

    Having the reddish-brown colour/color of copper.

  • Copper (verb)

    To sheathe or coat with copper.

  • Iron (noun)

    A common, inexpensive metal, often black in color, that rusts, is attracted by magnets, and is used in making steel.

  • Iron (noun)

    A metallic chemical element having atomic number 26 and symbol Fe.

  • Iron (noun)

    Any material, not a steel, predominantly made of elemental iron.

    “wrought iron, ductile iron, cast iron, pig iron, gray iron”

  • Iron (noun)

    A tool or appliance made of metal, which is heated and then used to transfer heat to something else; most often a thick piece of metal fitted with a handle and having a flat, roughly triangular bottom, which is heated and used to press wrinkles from clothing, and now usually containing an electrical heating apparatus.

  • Iron (noun)

    Shackles.

  • Iron (noun)

    A handgun.

  • Iron (noun)

    A dark shade of the colour/color silver.

  • Iron (noun)

    A male homosexual.

  • Iron (noun)

    A golf club used for middle-distance shots.

  • Iron (noun)

    Great strength or power.

  • Iron (adjective)

    Made of the metal iron.

  • Iron (adjective)

    Strong as of will, inflexible.

    “She had an iron will.”

    “He held on with an iron grip.”

    “an iron constitution”

    “Iron men”

    “adamant|adamantine|brassbound”

  • Iron (verb)

    To pass an iron over (clothing or some other item made of cloth) in order to remove creases.

  • Iron (verb)

    To shackle with irons; to fetter or handcuff.

  • Iron (verb)

    To furnish or arm with iron.

    “to iron a wagon”

Wiktionary

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