Copper peroxide is a hypothetical

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 ...

. The 1:2 ratio of copper and oxygen would be consistent with

copper Copper is a chemical element; it has symbol Cu (from Latin ) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkish-orang ...

in its common +2

oxidation state In chemistry, the oxidation state, or oxidation number, is the hypothetical Electrical charge, charge of an atom if all of its Chemical bond, bonds to other atoms are fully Ionic bond, ionic. It describes the degree of oxidation (loss of electrons ...

and a

peroxide In chemistry, peroxides are a group of Chemical compound, compounds with the structure , where the R's represent a radical (a portion of a complete molecule; not necessarily a free radical) and O's are single oxygen atoms. Oxygen atoms are joined ...

group. Although samples of this composition have not been isolated, has attracted interest from computational perspective. One highly cited analysis concludes that gaseous is a

superoxide In chemistry, a superoxide is a compound that contains the superoxide ion, which has the chemical formula . The systematic name of the anion is dioxide(1−). The reactive oxygen ion superoxide is particularly important as the product of t ...

, with copper in a +1 oxidation state: .

History

Species claimed to be "copper peroxide" have been claimed, e.g., by the reaction of cold solutions of

Schweizer's reagent Schweizer's reagent is a metal ammine complex with the formula salt consists of tetraamminediaquacopper(II) cations () and hydroxide anions (). It is prepared by dissolving copper(II) hydroxide in an aqueous solution of ammonia. It forms an azu ...

—a source of copper(II)—and

hydrogen peroxide Hydrogen peroxide is a chemical compound with the formula . In its pure form, it is a very pale blue liquid that is slightly more viscosity, viscous than Properties of water, water. It is used as an oxidizer, bleaching agent, and antiseptic, usua ...

. The Schweizer's reagent used must not contain excess ammonia. It was once claimed to result from the very slow reaction of finely divided

cupric oxide Copper(II) oxide or cupric oxide is an inorganic compound with the formula CuO. A black solid, it is one of the two stable oxides of copper, the other being Cu2O or copper(I) oxide (cuprous oxide). As a mineral, it is known as tenorite, or so ...

with cold hydrogen peroxide. Several molecular copper peroxide complexes have been reported, but these species always feature supporting organic

ligand In coordination chemistry, a ligand is an ion or molecule with a functional group that binds to a central metal atom to form a coordination complex. The bonding with the metal generally involves formal donation of one or more of the ligand's el ...

References

{{Copper compounds Peroxides Copper(II) compounds