Copper sulfate, also called as ‘blue stone’ or ‘blue vitriol’, is a chemical compound. The basic chemical formula of this compound is ‘CuSO4’, but the salt exists as a series of different compounds, depending on the degree of hydration. ‘Chalcocite’, the anhydrous form of copper sulfate, occurs as a rare mineral and exists as pale green or grayish white powder.
Copper sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO4.5H2O), the hydrated form of copper sulfate, is the most commonly encountered salt. It is bright blue in color and is known ‘chalcanthite’. The bright blue color of the hydrated copper sulfate crystals is due to the presence of water of crystallization and is the best way to distinguish between the anhydrous and hydrated forms. Let us read more about copper sulfate and its uses.
Firstly, to my knowledge this product was the first chemical to be used for algae control. Although it will kill algae, it is a product that experts do not normally recommend.
Agriculture
This chemical compound is a fungicide used to control bacterial and fungal diseases of fruit, vegetable, nut and field crops. Some of the diseases that are controlled by this fungicide include mildew, leaf spots, blights and apple scab. It is used in combination with lime and water as a protective fungicide, referred to as Bordeaux mixture, for leaf application and seed treatment. It is also used as an algaecide, an herbicide in irrigation and municipal water treatment systems, and as a molluscicide, a material used to repel and kill slugs and snails. The substance is a naturally-occurring inorganic salt and copper is an essential trace element in plant and animal nutrition (5, 6, 7, 13, 16).
Chemical Industry
Copper sulphate is a very versatile chemical with as extensive a range of uses in industry as it has in agriculture. Its principal employment is in agriculture, and, up to a generation or so ago, about its only uses in industry were as a mordant for dyeing and for electroplating. Today it is being employed in many industrial processes:
● The synthetic fibre industry has found an application for it in the production of their raw material.
● The metal industry uses large quantities of copper sulphate as an electrolyte in copper refining, for copper coating steel wire prior to wire drawing and in various copper plating processes.
● The mining industry employs it as an activator in the concentration by froth flotation of lead, zinc, cobalt and gold ores.
● The printing trade takes it as an electrolyte in the production of electrotype and as an etching agent for process engraving.
● The paint industry uses it in anti-fouling paints and copper sulfate plays a part in the colouring of glass.
In addition, in public health and medicine, it is used in the preparation of Paris green, to kill mosquito larvae that cause malaria. It is used to keep algal blooms away, especially from the swimming pools and water reservoirs.
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