Copper Vs Proton Research Paper

Copper is a transition metal with the chemical symbol “Cu”. Like all atoms, it is composed of protons, neutrons, and electrons. Protons are positively charged subatomic particles with a relative mass of one. Neutrons are neutrally charged subatomic particles with a relative mass of one as well. The nucleus contains both the protons and the neutrons. Electrons are negatively charged subatomic particles with a relative mass of 1/200. Though protons and neutrally differ drastically in size, their relatives charges are equal. Protons have a charge of +1 and electrons a charge of -1. Copper has an atomic number of twenty-nine due to its twenty-nine protons. This also means that a neutral atom of Copper has twenty- nine electrons. Since the mass of an electron is so small, only the neutrons and protons contribute to the mass of the atom. Copper’s mass number is 63.546 due to its many isotopes. The two most stable isotopes of copper are Copper-63, …show more content…
Copper has a moderately low ionization energy, meaning that it takes a small amount of energy to remove its valence electron. Therefore, copper is more likely to form a cation than an anion. Though the 3d subshell posses more energy than the 4s, when ionized the 4s electron is removed first to form a cation. This is due to screening from the 3d electrons. All ten electrons, shield the singular 4s electron from the effective nuclear charge of the atom, thus causing the lower energy 4s electron to act as the atom’s valence electron. This behavior is characteristic of most transition metals. The first ionization energy does not vary much across the transition metal; as a result, most transition metals have more than one oxidation energy. Copper has two. It may lose one electron from its 4s subshell to become a Cu+ ion; but it may also lose two electrons, the 4s and one from the 3d orbitals to become Cu2+