Safety
- When suing the Bunsen burner make sure there that there is nothing close to your working area which is flammable.
- Wear gloves and goggles to protect your eyes and hands.
- Keep the hydrochloric acid and the Bunsen burner at a safe distance apart as the hydrochloric acid be extremely corrosive.
Results
Evaluation
When burning the sample in the flame the colour of the flame wasn’t clear. I overcame this problem by using more of the salt until the colour was clear.
Also when going from one test to another the tests was contaminated and there was a mixture of colours. I overcame this problem by placing it in the flame then placing it in the hydrochloric acid then placing it in the flame. I did this until I saw that when I place the loop in the flame that there is no colour.
Chemical test for cations and anions
Cations
Start by putting the Ca2+ solution into a test tube then into the solution, then add a few drops of 1mol clm-3 of sodium hydroxide solution;
A pale blue precipitate of copper (II) hydroxide indicates the pressure of copper ions. (Cu2+)
Anions
Hydrogen test for anions.
Start by putting the hydrogen carbonate ions solutions into a test tube. Then to test the solution add a dilute acid to the solution if the gas produced turns lime water (milky), carbonate Co3 2- or hydrogen carbonate ions are present in the sample.
How is this test carried out in the industries?
In the industries the flame test is done very differently, one of the reasons for this is so that they can get the most accurate possible result.
In the hospital the process is done in an ionisation chamber. First a pipe is run to the flame, were a urine sample will be pumped into the fire. This is done to find the type of salt in the sample and also to calculate the concentration. A light beam is passed through the fire and then into a computer. A lens is put between the fire and the computer so that the beam of light is focused.
The computer will have a data base on all the different metals. The way each metal is identified is by the wavelength pattern of the light. The sample of light is then run through the data base and then a match will be found.
