Copper Sulphate Overview

Copper forms compounds in the oxidation states +1 and +2 ( trivalent copper survives no more than a few seconds in an aqueous solution). Copper sulfate is the common name for the blue crystalline cupric sulfate, in which copper has valence +2. It may also refer to cuprous sulfate (Cu2SO4), in which copper has valence +1. It is soluble in water but insoluble in alcohol. It usually crystallizes as  a pentahydrate compound containing five molecules of water (CuSO4¡Á5H2O) and is known in commerce as blue vitriol. It is prepared by the treatment of copper oxides with sulfuric acid.

Cupric sulfate is the most important salt of copper. Cupric sulfate is utilized chiefly for agricultural purposes, as a pesticide, germicide, feed additive, and soil additive. It is also used as a raw material in the preparation of other copper compounds, electrolyte for batteries and electroplating baths, and in medicine as a locally applied fungicide, bactericide, and astringent. It also finds wide use in the preparation of pigments.


Copper sulphate, blue stone, blue vitriol are all common names for pentahydrated cupric sulphate, CuSO45H2O, which is the best known and the most widely used of the copper salts. Indeed it is often the starting raw material for the production of many of the other copper salts. Today in the world there are more than 100 manufacturers and the world's consumption is around 200,000 tonnes per annum of which it is estimated that approximately three-quarters is used in agriculture, principally as a fungicide.