The influence of tellurium as an impurity during electrodeposition of copper from sulfate solution was investigated at room temperature. The effect of tellurium concentration on the current efficiency, electrochemical nucleation behavior, chemical structure and morphology at macro and micro level was studied systematically. The introduction of tellurium into the electrolyte has great influence on crystallization and nucleation growth behavior of copper on a glassy carbon substrate, making the nucleation behavior transfer from instantaneous to progressive and reducing the nucleation rate. Additionally, XRD patterns show that the introduction of tellurium can change the preferential orientation of the deposits from (220) plane to (111) plane. Tellurium (0.5-2.0 g L-1) reduced the flexibility of the electrodeposited copper. (C) 2017 The Electrochemical Society. All rights reserved.