Copper(I) sulfate, also known as cuprous sulfate, is an

inorganic compound An inorganic compound is typically a chemical compound that lacks carbon–hydrogen bonds⁠that is, a compound that is not an organic compound. The study of inorganic compounds is a subfield of chemistry known as ''inorganic chemistry''. Inorgan ...

with the

chemical formula A chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, such as pare ...

Cu₂ SO₄. It is a white solid, in contrast to

copper(II) sulfate Copper(II) sulfate is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It forms hydrates , where ''n'' can range from 1 to 7. The pentahydrate (''n'' = 5), a bright blue crystal, is the most commonly encountered hydrate of copper(II) sulfate, whi ...

, which is blue in hydrous form. Compared to the commonly available reagent, copper(II) sulfate, copper(I) sulfate is unstable and not readily available.

Structure

Cu₂SO₄ crystallizes in the

orthorhombic In crystallography, the orthorhombic crystal system is one of the 7 crystal systems. Orthorhombic Lattice (group), lattices result from stretching a cubic crystal system, cubic lattice along two of its orthogonal pairs by two different factors, res ...

space group Fddd. Each oxygen in a sulfate anion is bridged to another sulfate by a copper atom, and the Cu−O distances are 196 pm.

Synthesis

Cuprous sulfate is produced by the reaction of copper metal with

sulfuric acid Sulfuric acid (American spelling and the preferred IUPAC name) or sulphuric acid (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth spelling), known in antiquity as oil of vitriol, is a mineral acid composed of the elements sulfur, oxygen, ...

at 200 °C: : Cu₂SO₄ can also be synthesized by the action of

dimethyl sulfate Dimethyl sulfate (DMS) is a chemical compound with formula (CH3O)2SO2. As the diester of methanol and sulfuric acid, its formula is often written as ( CH3)2 SO4 or Me2SO4, where CH3 or Me is methyl. Me2SO4 is mainly used as a methylating agen ...

cuprous oxide Copper(I) oxide or cuprous oxide is the inorganic compound with the formula . It is one of the principal oxides of copper, the other being copper(II) oxide or cupric oxide (CuO). The compound can appear either yellow or red, depending on the size ...

: : The material is stable in dry air at room temperature but decomposes rapidly in presence of moisture or upon heating. It decomposes into copper(II) sulfate pentahydrate upon contact with water. :

References

{{Sulfates Copper(I) compounds Sulfates