AM+DG

42 VALLE, GELINO D.

Date Performed: September 20,

2013
43 YAP, TRES P.*

Date Submitted: September 27,

2013
3B
EXPERIMENT NO. 8
TRUE COLORS
I. Introduction
This experiment deals with finding the emission spectrum of certain metal ions
through the flame test procedure. The experiment is performed by obtaining a metal
ion and heating it through a Bunsen burner, and it is through this that the
characteristic color of the metal ion can be observed. The results or colors varied, as
metal ions have different characteristics, and the following conclusions were made:

The substances have different emission spectra.

The color of the flame varied when looked through the cobalt glass.

The unknown metal for our experiment is known to be sodium.

II. Problem and Objectives

The purpose of this experiment was to determine the effect of the kind of
metal ion on the color of the flame. Specifically, this activity sought to answer the
following objectives:
1. Determine the identity of an unknown metal ion by comparing its flame color
to other metal ions
2. Find the relationship of certain properties of an ion and the wavelength of the
flame.
3. Determine the effect of diffraction when the flame is seen through cobalt
glass.
III. Hypotheses
1. Using the cobalt glass will result to a different color seen.
2. The different substances will produce different colors from the line spectra.
3. Some substances will produce similar colors when heated.

AM+DG

IV. Methodology
1) Materials
Chemicals

Glassware and Equipment

Barium solution

Platinum or nichrome wire

Calcium solution

Bunsen burner

Cooper solution

Cobalt glass square

Lithium solution
Potassium solution
Sodium solution
Strontium solution
Hydrochloric Acid
2) Procedure
All the materials were gathered for the experiment. First, a nichrome wire was
cleaned by dipping it into the hydrochloric acid solution and was put into a blue
Bunsen flame until the wire did not produce anymore color. Next, the wire was
dipped into the first sample, Na+1, and was thrusted into the flame of the Bunsen
burner. The color was observed and this was recorded. The wire was again cleaned
by dipping it into the hydrochloric acid solution and put into the blue Bunsen flame
until no color was produced. Following this, the succeeding solutions were tested
and all observations were recorded. Finally, a piece of cobalt glass was used for the
mixtures containing the sodium and potassium solutions. While the wire containing
these solutions were placed in the Bunsen flame, the experimenters looked at the
flame it produced through this cobalt glass. After this, observations were recorded.
All materials were then put back and the place was cleaned.

AM+DG
Data, Results and Observations
Table A: Flame Color Using the Cobalt Glass
Metal Ion Sample
Sodium and Potassium, Na , and K
+1

Sodium, Na

Flame Color
Blue

+1

Purple

+1

Potassium, K

+1

Pinkish-red, w/ green at its top

In this table, the data was taken from the observations made by looking through the cobalt
glass while thrusting the metal into the flame. It was shown that the color changes when
looked through the cobalt glass.

Table B: Flame Color of Metal Ion Sample

Metal Ion Sample

Flame Color

Sodium, Na

Bright yellow

Barium, Ba

+1

Green

+2

Calcium, Ca

+2

Potassium, K
Copper, Cu

+2

Strontium, Sr
Lithium, Li

+1

+2

+1

Reddish-orange
Pinkish-orange
Bright bluish-green
Bright red
Deep and dark red

In this table, the flame colors of all the metal ions were observed. The table was used to
accurately identify the unknown metal ions.

Table C: Flame Color of the Unknown Vial

Flame Color

Identity of
Unknown

Metal ion (unknown sample)

Bright yellow

Sodium

Metal ion (unknown sample through cobalt

glass)

Greenishorange

Sodium

In this table, the flame color of the metal ion was observed both with the cobalt glass and
without it. Based on the previous table, the unknown metal can be identified as sodium.

AM+DG
D. Graph

Potassium

400

CesiumCooper

Barium Sodium
Calcium Strontium
Lithium

500

600

700

In this table, all the theoretical wavelengths of the metal ions were taken and recorded on
this graph. This graph shows the measures of the wavelengths in nanometers in order of
smallest to largest.

VI. Analysis
A flame test is a procedure to determine an elements emission spectrum.
When a metal is thrust into a flame, the energy of flame is absorbed by the metal.
When the metal absorbs energy, its electrons move from one energy level to the
other, and visible light is emitted. To put it simply, the color of the flame shows that an
electron is moving from one orbital to another.
Chemicals emit different colors of light probably because each chemical has
their own amount of energy per photon. In the experiment, the amount of energy the
flame gives is constant. Its possible then that each chemical absorbed a certain
amount of energy and that resulted in the change of color. This further supports
Plancks theory because different chemicals react differently to a constant source of
energy.
The chemicals have to be heated first because they need to absorb energy for
the electron to move from one state to another. Flame color is seen because of the
electrons movement. An electron needs to absorb energy to move.
Colorful light emissions can be found in many places in everyday life. The
most common example is traffic lights.
The characteristic flame color of the ions is yellow. Based on research, it has
been discovered that sodium, which produces a yellow color when burned, is a
common component of contaminant in many compounds that were use. Also, its
spectrum often dominates over the that of the spectra of others.
Different emission lines were observed when viewed through the cobalt glass
since the glass filters out the yellow flame caused by sodium and it expands the
ability to see violet and blue lights.

AM+DG
The flame test isnt a very valid way because the flame test only determines
an elements emission spectrum more than its properties. It could be possible that
electrons of a different element may need the same amount of energy to emit the
same color. Moreover, visible light is very limiting for identification because emission
also emits UV and infrared. It requires more effort to see those waves to identify a
chemical.
Luminous flame has a significantly high amplitude. When conducting a flame
test, it is possible that the luminous flame will mask the flame color of the metals
because their amplitudes arent as high as the luminous flame.
One possible error is the failure to properly clean the wire. It may be possible
that the wire still contained some traces of a metal ion and mixing the two ions may
have led to a different result.
VII. Conclusion
The flame test determined all the colors produced by the substances by
heating those substances in the Bunsen burner. It is concluded that looking at the
cobalt glass will result to a different color being seen. It is also concluded that there
are substances which produced similar colors when heated.
VIII. Recommendations
In the experiment, one big problem was cleaning the wire. There were some
instances where the wire was not properly cleaned, or the hydrochloric acid was not
completely burned off. This may have led to some errors in the process of
experimentation.
IX. References
A. Erxleben. "Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy 2009.
<http://www.nuigalway.ie/chemistry/level2/courses/CH205_atomic_absorption_spectr
oscopy.pdf>
Flinn Scientific, Inc. The Flame Test 2004.
< http://www.soinc.org/sites/default/files/uploaded_files/flametest.pdf>