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Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date-19/2/21

The document describes an experiment to observe the emission spectra of various gases including argon, neon, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and mercury. When exposed to sunlight or an electric current, each gas emitted light of unique colors. For example, argon appeared pink, neon appeared red, and mercury appeared blue or white. By analyzing the colors present and absent in the spectra, the elements in an unknown sample can be identified.

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Keenan
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68 views

Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date-19/2/21

The document describes an experiment to observe the emission spectra of various gases including argon, neon, helium, hydrogen, nitrogen, and mercury. When exposed to sunlight or an electric current, each gas emitted light of unique colors. For example, argon appeared pink, neon appeared red, and mercury appeared blue or white. By analyzing the colors present and absent in the spectra, the elements in an unknown sample can be identified.

Uploaded by

Keenan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date- 19/2/21

Aim:
To find the emission spectra of Argon, neon, Helium, hydrogen nitrogen and
mercury.

Equipment and Procedure- See page 30: STAWA Lab

Results/Observations:
Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date- 19/2/21

Light Colour observed


source
(gas in
tube)
Sunlight

Question:

Argon-
pink

Neon- red

Helium-
orange

Hydrogen
-pink

Nitrogen-
pink

Mercury-
blue/white
Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date- 19/2/21

1) Name the colours that can be seen in the visible spectrum using the
spectroscope?
Red, orange, yellow, green blue, indigo, violet.
2) Explain why what you observe with natural daylight is referred to as a
continuous spectrum?
Natural daylight has all the colours of the visible light spectrum.
3) Explain why the room has to be darkened for viewing the light emitted from
the gas discharge tubes?
Photons from the lights in the room interfere with the emission spectra.
4) How do the emission spectra from the gas discharge tubes compare with the
spectrum of visible light?
There are different wavelengths of light missing in the emission spectra
for each gas, as they are absorbed by the gas.
5) Compare and contrast the emission spectra observed from different gas
discharge tubes?
Hydrogen, argon, and nitrogen all looked pink to the naked eye but
lacked different wavelengths of light. Hydrogen seemed to lack orange
while orange was heavily present in the emission spectra of argon. All
colours seemed to be present in nitrogen. Both helium and mercury
lacked blue in their emission spectra. Neon appeared to lack purple and
blue.

6) Describe atomic emission spectroscopy could be used to identify elements?


In emission spectra, bright lines will show up corresponding to the
difference between energy levels of the elements, where in an
absorption spectrum, the lines will be dark. Since every element has
unique energy levels, the spectra can help identify elements in a
sample.
7) Atomic absorption spectroscopy is a technique related to atomic emission
spectroscopy but in this case the specific wavelengths of light absorbed y the
sample are detected. You observed the gaps in the spectrum of light with
black lines indicating wavelengths absorbed. Explain how this technique can
also be used to identify elements?
Different elements will absorb different wavelengths of light depending
on their emission spectra. Through observing which wavelengths are
missing for a substance, we are able to determine the specific element a
substance is.

Conclusion:
In conclusion, we were able to successfully identify the emission spectra for the
tested gases. For example, nitrogen appeared to emit all colours, mercury and
helium lacked blue, argon lacked purple and green, etc.
Keenan Enrilsen Lab 9: Emission Spectra Date- 19/2/21

Evaluation:
The main source of error in the experiment was the decision of which colours were
absent and which colours were actually present. For example, red and yellow mixed
to give orange, resulting in the struggle of identifying whether the shade was more
red or more yellow, resulting in our group having to take a majority vote to decide.
My group was able to work relatively effectively, as all members were able to
observe each gas give each of their opinions on the colours visible to allow the group
to come to conclusions more accurately.

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