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Lab3 FlameTest

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11 views

Lab3 FlameTest

Uploaded by

frankosier54
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Chemistry

Flame Tests Mini-Lab!


Background / Purpose
By placing atoms of metal into a flame, electrons can be induced to absorb
energy and jump to an excited energy state. They then return to a lower energy
level by emitting a photon of light. The difference between the two energy levels
equals the amount of energy in the photon (thanks to the law of conservation of
energy). In turn, the energy of the photon determines its color, according to the
discoveries of Max Planck (E = hν).
Because each element has a unique arrangement of electrons, it will have
specific energy differences between the ground state and excited state, and will
emit light of a particular combination of colors. As a result, each element has a
different emission spectrum (the colors of light it emits when heated).
In this experiment, you will heat solutions of several different metal ions in a
bunsen burner to cause them to emit light. You will record the colors observed for
each ion, and use this information to determine the contents of a solution of one or
more mystery ions.

Materials:
● bunsen burner
● white well plate
● nickel-chromium wire loop
● 2 M hydrochloric acid
● 0.1 M solutions of several metallic salts, including (but not limited to):

o potassium chloride: KCl o strontium chloride: SrCl2


o lithium nitrate: LiNO3 o calcium chloride: CaCl2
o sodium chloride: NaCl o barium chloride: BaCl2
o copper (II) chloride: CuCl2 o bismuth trichloride: BiCl3

Preparation:
1. Clean your well plate and rinse with distilled water, but DO NOT dry it with a
paper towel. Simply shake off the excess water.
2. Draw 12 circles on a piece of paper to represent the wells of the well plate.
3. Put five to ten drops of each solution into a different well on the plate. As you
do, write the symbol for the metal in the compound (e.g. K for potassium, Ca for
calcium) for that solution in the corresponding circle on the paper. (This will
help you keep track of which solution is in which well as you conduct the tests.)
Please take care not to mix up the solutions or the caps of the dropper bottles.
4. Pour about ten milliliters of hydrochloric acid (HCl) into a small beaker.
5. Light the bunsen burner and adjust the flame until you get a blue cone
surrounded by an almost invisible flame.
Cleaning the nickel-chromium wire:
1. Rinse the loop with distilled water into the sink.
2. Dip the wire loop into the beaker of hydrochloric acid.
3. Put the loop into the flame for a few seconds. As you do, observe the flame. It
should not change color. If it does, repeat the cleaning process.
4. Let the wire cool before you continue with your tests.

Conducting a flame test:


1. Clean the wire loop as explained above before you conduct your first test.
2. Dip the wire loop into the spot plate for the solution you wish to test.
3. Hold the loop in the flame, about an inch above the blue cone, and observe the
color of light produced. Record your observations on your paper.
4. Clean the wire loop again after each test. Be sure to repeat the cleaning
process until you don’t see a change in the flame color when you heat the wire.

Notes / Warnings:
Sodium is very difficult to clean off the wire loop. I strongly recommend that you
conduct the sodium test last. Otherwise, you may find the sodium emission color
appearing in all of your subsequent tests.
Do NOT dip a hot wire into any of the solutions. If you do, the ions may become
bonded to the wire such that you won’t be able to remove them.
If you leave the wire in the flame for several seconds, it will glow orange, and
produce an orange flame. This is not the color you are trying to observe. Conduct
your tests quickly, and don't leave the wire in the flame too long.

Testing an unknown solution:


Once you have conducted tests on all of the known solutions, check your
observations with me to be certain that your observations are accurate. If so, you
will receive an unknown solution that contains one or more different metal ions.
Conduct a flame test on the unknown and attempt to identify the ion(s) it contains.

Cleanup:
1. Rinse your spot plate well with tap water, then with distilled water.
2. Pour your hydrochloric acid into a beaker containing 500 mL of tap water, then
pour it down the drain, rinsing with copious amounts of tap water.
3. Return all materials to the correct drawers and cabinets at your lab station.
Chemistry
Flame Test Mini-Lab!
Post Lab Assignment
1. In your own words, explain the process that produces the colors you see in the
flame tests. Describe how the electrons behave, in particular.

2. In your own words, describe how the flame test was used to discover new
elements.

3. Why are metallic compounds added to fireworks?

4. Why do the emission spectra of elements have separate lines of color, rather
than having wide bands of color?

5. In a particular atom, one excited electron (electron A) fell from the 6th energy
level down to the 2nd energy level. Another excited electron (electron B) fell from
the 4th energy level to the 2nd energy level. Which electron will emit a photon with
the longer wavelength? With the higher frequency?

6. When a glass test tube is heated in a burner, a bright yellow-orange flame is


observed. What does this indicate? Why is it observed when glass is heated?
Note: This is observed even in brand new, completely clean test tubes or glass
tubes, so it's not related to any contamination of the glassware from prior use.

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