Would it be safe to place pure copper jewelry in an acidic solution?
Hydrogen is SLIGHTLY more reactive than Copper. Therefore, it would be relatively safe to put Cu in an HCl solution. But I wouldn't do it anyway, since they are so close on the activity series. Activity series goes like this: Li K Ba Ca Na Mg Al Zn Cr Fe Cd Co Ni Sn Pb H Cu Hg Ag Pt Au, with Li being the most reactive.
Please don't put your copper jewlery in acid! Acid dissolves any metal, and considering that Copper is one of the more reactive metals it will definetly be affected. It will either dissolve (ofcourse that would be if it was sitting in acid for a long period of time) but based on my knowledge it will probably have a chemical reaction with the metal and moral of the story your jewlery is ruined. Hope i could help :)
Whoa Nellie. Back the boat up. This statement, .. nsidering that Copper is one of the more reactive metals it will definetly (sic) be affected... is dead wrong. Copper is not a particularly reactive metal. It won't react with acids to liberate hydrogen gas. In fact, the only acid that copper will react with is nitric acid, HNO3, and then it reacts with the nitrate ion to ultimately release brown, toxic NO2 gas. The big question is WHY would you put your copper jewelry in an acid solution? Copper will slowly react with relatively concentrated HCl solutions over a span of several days. The mechanism actually involves the coating of CuO on the copper metal and the formation of the complex ion [CuCl4]2-.
