Copper Sulphate can be used as a Bactericide and Algaecide.
Swimming pool water long algae has been the norm, no maintenance of water quality, then long algae is necessary, found that the pool water long algae after the first time is to do algae treatment. The use of symptomatic algaecide algaecide, Copper Sulphate as a traditional algaecide, is widely used in various types of swimming places to use.
Copper Sulphate belongs to heavy metal salts, heavy metal cations generally have a certain degree of toxicity to microorganisms, the toxicity of the size of the following order: silver (Ag) > mercury (Hg) > copper (Cu) > calcium (Ca) > chromium (Cr) > nickel (Ni) > lead (Pb) > cobalt (Co) > zinc (Zn).
Copper Sulphate it kills algae principle is poisoning death, copper ions are heavy metal ions, can exceed the magnesium ions, sodium ions, etc. faster combined with the chloroplast of algal plants, resulting in chloroplast heavy metal poisoning, loss of photosynthesis, thus letting the algae die.
Heavy metals must be in the ionic state to be toxic, and the molecular state does not have a biocidal effect. The surface of the bacterium under normal circumstances to adsorb a number of non-toxic cations in solution (such as H +, Ca2 +, Mg2 +, K +, etc.), but when toxic cations (such as Zn2 +, CU2 +, Mg2 +, Ag +, etc.) exists, it can be replaced by non-toxic ions and adsorbed on the surface of the bacterium, which will change the nature of the cell, and some of the heavy metal ions can enter the cell with proteins or enzymes that lead to the death of microorganisms. Death. The most commonly used heavy metal salts are copper sulphate, which is particularly effective on microorganisms with chlorophyll. It is used at concentrations of 3-5 mg/L and kills most algae. The permissible level for biological treatment is 0.4 to 0.5 mg/L.
The reason for the toxic effect of copper ions is that the colloids of coagulable cells can form stable chelates with many natural amino acids, including alanine, leucine, lysine and glycine, causing these amino acids to lose their normal function. It is worth mentioning that copper ions are very sensitive to pH and total alkalinity, and in the presence of alkaline water pH and carbonate, they quickly form insoluble copper, which precipitates at the bottom of the pool and becomes useless and causes the pool to be coloured, as can be seen from the green colouration of the pool tile seams. Therefore, copper can produce organic copper and chelated copper that does not precipitate and kills planktonic algae in the water, and copper hydroxide and copper sulphate that easily precipitates at the bottom of the pool and kills algae at the bottom of the pool, and copper sulphate has both functions, in the early stage of the copper sulphate dissociates copper ions and kills planktonic algae, and in the late stage of the formation of insoluble copper sulphate and copper hydroxide that kills the algae at the bottom of the pool and in the seams of the tiles.