EXPERIMENT 1

SEPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF

CATIONS

BSC PURE & APPLIED

JOSEPH PELAELO
CHEMISTRY
SEPARATION AND IDENTIFICATION OF CATIONS
AIM
To identify cation present in a given solution using qualitative analysis.

INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this experiment was to use qualitative analysis in order to determine a unique
set of properties of cations through preliminary tests. Qualitative analysis is the area of
chemistry concerned with the identification of species making up a sample. During this
experiment, some fundamental types of behaviours and reactions were to be observed. One of
these being amphoteric behaviour. Amphoteric means that a certain species has the capability
of being both an acid and a base depending on the conditions of the reaction. Several
hydroxides have this property.
Another behaviour focused on involved aqueous ammonia. When dissolved in water,
ammonia acts as a weak base. Depending on the molarity of the solution the metal cations
can either react with hydroxide ions forming a hydroxide precipitate or with the molecular
ammonia to form a coloured amine complex. A third behaviour that was supposed to be noted
was the behaviour of cations with sulphide ion. The sulphide ion is useful in separating
precipitation because it can be controlled by controlling the pH of a solution.
The fourth and final behaviour was that in the weak bases of carbonate and phosphate. Both
ions react with water to generate hydroxide ions. The metal ions can form carbonate
precipitate, a hydroxide precipitate or a hydrogen carbonate precipitate. This is the same for
phosphate. These reactions are determined by deciding which species were present at the
beginning and what possible reactions can occur.
FLAME TESTS
Flame tests are used to identify the presence of a relatively small number of metal ions in a
compound. Not all metal ions give flame colours. For Group 1 compounds, flame tests are
usually by far the easiest way of identifying which metal you have got. For other metals,
there are usually other easy methods which are more reliable - but the flame test can give a
useful hint as to where to look.
CARRYING OUT A FLAME TEST
A platinum or nichrome are always used to carry out a flame test. To avoid contamination the
wire to be used is cleaned by dipping it in to a concentrated hydrochloric acid and then held
in a hot, non-luminous Bunsen flame. When the wire is clean it is then moistened again and
dipped into a small amount of solid to be tested and placed back into a Bunsen flame. The
flame colour produced is the observed and used to determine the cation present in the
compound.
COLOURS
Different cations produce different colours when placed in Bunsen flame.
 flame colour

Li red

Na strong persistent yellow-orange

K lilac (pink)

Rb red (reddish-violet)

Cs blue-violet (see below)

Ca orange-red

Sr red

Ba pale green

Cu blue-green (often with white flashes)

Pb greyish-white

THE ORIGION OF FLAME COLOURS

If you excite an atom or an ion by very strong heating, electrons can be promoted from their
normal unexcited state into higher orbitals. As they fall back down to lower levels, energy is
released as light.
Each of these jumps involves a specific amount of energy being released as light energy, and
each corresponds to a particular wavelength or frequency.
As a result of all these jumps, a spectrum of lines will be produced, some of which will be in
the visible part of the spectrum. The colour you see will be a combination of all these
individual colours.
In the case of sodium ions or many other metal ions, the jumps often involve very high
energies and these result in lines in the UV part of the spectrum which your eyes can't see.
The jumps that you can see in flame tests often come from electrons falling from a higher to a
lower level in the metal atoms.
If, for example, you put sodium chloride, which contains sodium ions in the hot flame, some
of the sodium ions regain their electrons to form neutral sodium atoms again.
A sodium atom in an unexcited state has the structure 1s 22s22p63s1, but within the flame there
will be all sorts of excited states of the electrons.
Sodium's familiar bright orange-yellow flame colour results from promoted electrons falling
back from the 3p1 level to their normal 3s1 level.
The exact sizes of the possible jumps in energy terms vary from one metal to another. That
means that each different metal will have a different pattern of spectral lines, and so a
different flame colour.
REACTIONS OF METAL HYDROXIDES
Transition metals form coloured compounds with other elements. Many of these are soluble
in water, forming coloured solutions. If sodium hydroxide solution is then added, a transition
metal hydroxide is formed. Transition metal hydroxides are insoluble so they form
solid precipitates. These precipitates often appear as small particles suspended in a solution.
MATERIALS
 14 test tubes
 Bunsen burner
 Nichrome wire
 Pipette
PROCEDURE
FLAME TEST
A nichrome wire was cleansed by heating in the hottest spot of a Bunsen burner flame until
no colour was observed in the flame. The wire was the moistened concentrated hydrochloric
acid and dipped into the powdered mineral A that was provided so that a small amount
adheres to the wire. That end of the wire was then heated and the presence of some substance
coloured the outer part of the flame. The colour was recorded and the steps were repeated for
compounds B, C, D, E, F, recording the colours produced for each compound.

RESULTS
COMPOUND COLOUR OF FLAME
A Purple
B Orange
C Orange
D Orange
E Orange
F White
REACTIONS OF METAL HYDROXIDES
14 test tubes were cleaned and labelled from B to O. 2 cm^3 of each metal solution was
placed in a clean different test tube. In test tube B two drops of dilute NaOH solution was
added and a white precipitate was formed. Excess NaOH solution was added and the
precipitate remained in the solution. After adding dilute H₂SO₄ the precipitate dissolved to
form a colourless solution. In test tube C after adding two drops of dilute NaOH a brown
precipitate was formed. A new sample was collected and 2 drops of NH₃ was added. A
brown precipitate was form which dissolved after addition of excess NH₃ solution. To test
tube D, a blue precipitate formed after the addition of NaOH solution. To a new sample two
drops of NH₃ was added and a blue precipitate was form followed by a deep blue solution
after adding excess NH₃. For test tube E, after addition of NaOH a white solution was formed
and remained upon excess addition of NaOH. After adding H₂SO₄ a white precipitate
remained. The steps were repeated for test tubes F, G, H, I, J, K, L, M, N and O. And the
results were recorded in a table.
RESULTS

SOLUTION CATION PRESENT

B Mg²⁺
C Ag⁺
D Cu²⁺
E Ba²⁺
F NH₄⁺
G
H Zn²⁺
I Mg²⁺
J Fe³⁺
K Zn²⁺
L Na⁺
M Fe³⁺
N Ba²⁺
O Ba²⁺

DISSCUSION
Group1 metals cations produce different colours when placed on a flame. This makes it easy
for them to be determined using flame test. Nichrome wire was used during flame test
because Nichrome wire has such a high melting point that the relatively low temperature of
the Burning flames won't drive any Ni (Nickel) or Cr (Chromium) atoms into the ionic state
and interfere with the colour of the ions in the compound which is adhering to the wire.
Transition metals form coloured compounds with other elements. When NaOH is added to
these compounds they react to form carbonates, hydroxide etc which are insoluble hence they
form precipitates with different colours. The colours can then be used to determine the cation
present in the solution.
CONCLUTION
The cations that were found during flame test were Ca²⁺and K⁺. as to the reactions of metal
hydroxides cations found were Mg²⁺, Ag⁺, Cu²⁺, Ba²⁺, NH₄⁺ Zn²⁺, Fe³⁺, and Na⁺.