Elemental copper per se evaporates so slowly at ambient conditions that I can’t imagine it would have a smell. But, when I handle copper, I can smell something distinctive, a sort of astringent and sour smell, which I’ve always thought of as the odor of copper.
What is it, actually? Some volatile copper compound? Or perhaps some dying gasp given off by the bacteria that (I hear) copper kills off?
I note that that familiar odor is not noticeable in our tap water, though our pipes are copper.
I have noticed the same with copper as well as other metals including cadmium plated hardware and galvanized steel.
I await an explanation.
There was a LiveScience article a few years back about this - Coins Don’t Smell, You Do. Although the article seems to be about iron and not copper.
I’m pretty sure copper metal is odorless. You’re likely smelling the copper sulfate patina that forms pretty fast. Notice copper “smells” the same as brass for the same reason.
Sounds pretty plausible, though for iron. Why did they study iron coins, I wonder?
Its a soft surface of oxidized metal.
You might think that the CuO just sits there doing nothing.
But no, the oxidised layer is at equilibrium with the atmosphere…
That is, sometimes the O leaves the metal and sometimes O sticks to the metal, and
the rate of such gain and loss is equal.
The root cause of the smell from these more active surfaces seems to be the production of singular oxygen atoms… it may be oxidised organics… the more dirty the more “metallic” it smells.
The metal surface, as with the concrete/asphalt/ road surface, then becomes more smelly when wet after a while being dry and hot… as the organics have been sitting their becoming more and more oxidised and then they release their smells when wet .
Although the smell reminds use of ozone, I don’t think it is ozone when its just a simple metal surface.