CuS

Covellite · Copper monosulfide

Covellite is a naturally occurring copper sulfide mineral that typically appears as a deep blue or iridescent solid. It is primarily studied and utilized for its semiconducting properties and its potential in advanced energy conversion and storage technologies.

CuS
Crystal structure of CuS (orthorhombic, Cmcm (No. 63))
Ground-state structure · Materials Project
Overview

Key Properties

Cross-validated computational properties for Covellite, aggregated across 5 databases.

Band Gap

Metallic / not reported

Energy Above Hull

0.000 eV/atom
Best (lowest) across sources

Stability

On hull (stable)
3 DFT sources

Structures

191
5 databases, 33 space groups
Validation

Cross-Source DFT Agreement

How well independent DFT databases agree on the thermodynamics of CuS. Tight agreement means computed properties can be trusted without re-running calculations.

Agreement Score

1.00 / 1.00
Trust tier: medium

Hull Spread

0.000 eV
EAH spread across sources

Sources Compared

2
jarvis, materials_project

Space Group Consensus

All match
Crystallography

Reported Structures

Lowest-energy structures reported for CuS, ranked by energy above hull.

Space GroupCrystal SystemBand Gap (eV)E above hull (eV/atom)E/atom (eV)Density (g/cm³)
Cmcm (No. 63)orthorhombic0.000.0000-9.7184.75
P63/mmc (No. 194)hexagonal0.000.0001-9.7184.75
F-43m (No. 216)cubic0.000.0099-9.7084.62
Fm-3m (No. 225)cubic0.000.1249-9.5935.46
P63/mmc (No. 194)hexagonal0.000.2861-9.4325.31
P3m1 (No. 156)trigonal0.000.2932-9.4252.62
P-1 (No. 2)Triclinic3.75
P-1 (No. 2)Triclinic3.37
F-43m (No. 216)Cubic4.65
P63/mmc (No. 194)
Fm-3m (No. 225)
P-1 (No. 2)Triclinic3.21
Uses

Applications

Where Covellite is used.

Photovoltaic cellsPhotocatalysisGas sensorsSupercapacitorsLithium-ion battery electrodes
Reference

Frequently Asked Questions

Common questions about Covellite, answered from cross-validated data.

What is CuS?

Covellite is a naturally occurring copper sulfide mineral that typically appears as a deep blue or iridescent solid. It is primarily studied and utilized for its semiconducting properties and its potential in advanced energy conversion and storage technologies.

More questions
What is CuS used for?
Covellite (CuS) is used in photovoltaic cells, photocatalysis, gas sensors, supercapacitors, and lithium-ion battery electrodes.
What is the band gap of CuS?
Covellite (CuS) is computed to be metallic (no band gap) in the reported DFT structures.
Is CuS a metal, semiconductor, or insulator?
Computed band structures report no gap, so it is metallic.
Is CuS thermodynamically stable?
Yes — Covellite (CuS) sits on the convex hull (energy above hull 0 eV/atom), i.e. on hull (stable).
What is the crystal structure of CuS?
The lowest-energy reported polymorph of Covellite (CuS) is orthorhombic symmetry, space group Cmcm (No. 63).
What is the density of CuS?
The computed density of the ground-state structure of Covellite (CuS) is 4.75 g/cm³.
How many polymorphs of CuS are known?
191 structures of CuS are reported across 5 databases, spanning 33 distinct space groups.
What elements does CuS contain?
Covellite (CuS) contains Cu and S (2 elements).
Where does the data for CuS come from?
CuS data is cross-referenced from materials_project, mpaloe, jarvis.
Data sources & attribution
  • materials_project — Data from the Materials Project. Cite: Jain et al., APL Materials 1, 011002 (2013).
  • mpaloe — Data from mpaloe.
  • jarvis — Data from JARVIS (NIST). Cite: Choudhary et al., npj Comp. Mater. 6, 173 (2020).

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