Introduction

Atoms have specific energy levels that their atoms can exit at. Different ions
have different energy levels proportional to the distance of their orbital from the
nucleus. Electrons close to the positive nucleus have lower potential energy. When
elements are heated to higher temperature, the electron becomes excited; it will
jump to a higher energy level. As the excited electron returns to its ground state, it
gives off energy, often in the form of visible light, called photons or light quanta.
The changes in the energy that occur when the excited electron return to their
ground stated cause the substance to be luminous and emit light. The observed
colors of substance is caused by the set of visible wavelengths of the light emitted.
The difference between the energy levels is characteristic of the element so the
wavelength of the radiation too. The colour of the emitted light depends on its
energy. Blue light is more energetic than red light.
Flame colors are produced from the movement of the electrons in the metal
ions present in the compounds. From the experiment, the sodium ion, Na + has been
identified from the burning of sodium chloride. When sodium ion in an unexcited
state, it has the structure of 1s 2 2s2 2p6 3s1. When the sodium ion is heated, the
electrons gain energy and can jump into any of the empty orbitals at higher levels,
depending on how much the energy sodium ion happens to absorb from the flame.
The sodium ion, Na+ makes the flame turned into bright yellow. This is because the
excited 3s electron of sodium emit a photon when they fall from 3p to 3s the
wavelength of this photon corresponds to the D line at 589.3nm. Spin-orbit
interactions involving the electron in the 3p orbital split the D line into two hyperfine
structures involving both orbitals cause many more line. Meanwhile, the burning of
potassium chloride produced the potassium ion, K + which has the structure of 1s 2
2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 4s1. The presence of K+ has emitted violet color of flame. Calcium
chloride also contains the calcium ion, Ca + that emitted orange color flame. Calcium
ion has the electronic configuration of 1s 2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 when it is in unexcited
state. Next, the cation of cupric chloride is Cu 2+ that has 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d9
electronic configuration. The burning of cupric chloride will produce blue-green color
of flame. Lastly, the flame test of ferric chloride. Iron (III) ion, Fe3+ has the electronic
configuration of 1s2 2s2 2p6 3s2 3p6 3d5. The end of the burning it will produce gold
color of flame.

During conducting the experiment the metals are held on the flame test wire
cleaned repeated with hydrochloric acid, HCl in order to remove traces of previous
analytes. Flame tests are done using a gas rich (blue) flame. Conditions in the flame
are designed to give a relatively high concentration of metal atoms as opposed to
ions within the flame.