Thermogravimetry of copper and copper oxides (Cu2O-CuO)

The thermogravimetry of mixtures of metallic copper and copper oxides was studied. The experiments were performed by heating the samples in air to 700–800° to transform all the components to copper(II) oxide, and continuing the heating in nitrogen to 1050–1100° when the dissociation of copper(II) oxide to copper(I) oxide is complete. The identification of the components and their quantitative determination were carried out by determining the shape, size, and ratio of the segments of the curves obtained during the heating. The method can be used for quantitative analysis of mixtures of copper and/or copper oxides.