CHEM 01L

Experiment 5

WORKSHEET

Name: Richard Anthony R. Garcia Schedule: 8:00 – 11:00 AM

Wednesday

Grade and Block: STEM 11 - C Teacher: Ms. Jessie Villagonzalo

General Instructions: Encode or write your answers in each of the questions. For handwritten
answers, take a picture of your work and embed it in this document. Please make sure that before
submitting your output, all the pictures are properly formatted in this document.

IMPORTANT INSTRUCTION: Your submitted outputs should be saved as a PDF File to ensure
that the formatting of the document will not be affected after submission.

Part I: Answer the following questions. Write your answers in paragraph form. You may also attach
images to support your answer.

1. Explain in your own words the chemistry behind the differences in the colors of flames of
different metallic ions during the flame test. [3 points]

When the metal ion absorbs energy, it may move to higher excited energy level. This higher
excited energy level is unstable and tends to go back to its ground state. When it does go lower,
the energy absorbed would be dispersed in the form of light.

2. In the flame test experiments shown previously, the solutions containing metallic ions also contain
chloride ions (Cl¯). This means that when the nichrome wire is dipped in the solution, Cl¯ ions
should also be present in the wire. Why is it that Cl ¯ ions do not create a distinct color of the flame
during the flame test? Elaborate. [2 points]
Hint: You may visit the videos again to know the explanation behind this.

Cl ¯ ions emit energy or light that is not in the visible region, so the flame color visible to us would only
be the metal exclusively.

3. How do you make sure that the nichrome wire used in the flame test experiment is clean? What is
the most common contaminant ion in solutions? What is the color of this contaminant in the flame?
[3 points]
 - In order to make sure the nichrome wire used is clean, one must dip the wire into concentrated
hydrochloric acid and hold it over a hot Bunsen flame, and repeat those until the wire does not
produce color in the flame.
- The most common contaminant in many solutions is Sodium or Na+ (aq) which has a flame color
of yellow.

4. . What are the limitations of using flame tests as a technique for qualitative analysis? [2 points]

- The test results are subjective. The data could be different from one scientist to another because
the test involves solely the observation of colors being produced.

Part II. Write the reagents (ex. NaOH, NH3, etc.) together with the names of the products formed in the
determination of the following ions: [10 points]

CHEMICAL NAME/S OF THE

IONS REAGENTS
PRODUCT/S

Copper (II) ions (Cu2+)

2OH- (aq), NH3 (aq) Cu (OH)2 (s)

Chromium (III) ions (Cr3+)

2OH- (aq), NaOH, NH3 Cr(OH)2 (s)

Zinc ions (Zn2+)

2OH- (aq), NH3 (aq) Zn(OH)2 (s)

Silver ions (Ag+)

2OH- (aq), NH3 (aq) Ag(OH)2 (s)

Aluminum ions (Al3+)

2OH- (aq), NH3 (aq) Al(OH)2 (s)