What is the reason for the different colors of flames in the metallic flame color reaction?

Maybe you've had the experience of accidentally spilling miso soup in the oven, and the burning flame will instantly turn yellow. This is because miso soup contains table salt.

To be precise, this is the "flame color reaction" caused by the high temperature of the sodium component in table salt. Associate Professor Naoki Tojima, Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, University of Tokyo, Japan, first introduced to us what "the flame color reaction throws salts such as alkaline metals and alkaline earth metals into the fire, so that when they are exposed to high temperatures, the flame will show the inherent color of each element, which is what it is.""Flame color reaction"。"There are several orbits around the nucleus where the electrons go in circles.

Strictly speaking, this expression is not necessarily accurate, but let's think of it in this way for a moment: we call the state in which electrons accumulate sequentially from the inner lower energy orbital as the basal state, which is a stable state.

In the basic state, the electrons in the low-energy position absorb energy in the flame and then transfer to the high-energy orbital, which is called the excited state, because the excited state is a very unstable state, and the electrons have to return to the basic state, that is, the original orbital. When it returns to its base state, the absorbed energy is released in the form of light-like electromagnetic waves. "Atoms and molecules that are in an excited state are induced to emit light when they encounter the same light as the light they emit.

The laser at the pinnacle of modern optics was created by applying this principle. Well, just as sodium emits yellow and copper glows green, different atoms will have color differences, "The so-called color of light, it is determined by the wavelength, which in turn is determined by the energy. Since the number of electrons and the energy of the orbital are different between different atoms, the energy released, i.e. the color (wavelength) of light, is of course different.

In other words, if you analyze the spectrum, you can identify different atoms. It is said that in the past, people discovered new elements through the "flame color reaction", and the ceremonial flowers that decorate the night around us are also the gift of the "flame color reaction".

When the alkali metal and its salts are burned on the flame, the electrons in the flame reaction atoms absorb the energy and jump from the lower energy orbital to the higher energy orbital, but the electrons in the higher energy orbital are unstable and soon jump back to the lower energy orbital, at which point the excess energy is released in the form of light. The wavelength of the emitted light is in the visible range (wavelength 400nm to 760nm), so it can give the flame its color. The flame color reaction is a physical change.

It does not generate new matter, the flame reaction is a change in the energy level of the electrons inside the atoms of matter, which is commonly said to be the change of the electronic energy in the atom, and does not involve the change of the structure and chemical properties of the matter.

The flame color reaction, also known as the flame color test and the flame color test, is a reaction that causes the flame to take on its characteristic color when certain metals or their compounds are burned in a colorless flame. The principle is that each element has its own individual spectrum. Samples are usually in the form of powders or small pieces.

Load the sample with a clean and less active wire (e.g., platinum or nichrome) and place it in a matte flame (blue flame). In chemistry, it is often used to test for the presence of a metal in a compound. At the same time, using the flame color reaction, people consciously add specific metal elements to the fireworks to make the fireworks more colorful and colorful.

The flame color reaction is a reaction in which certain metals or their volatile compounds take on the characteristic color of a flame when it burns in a colorless flame. Some metals, or their compounds, can give a special color to the flame when burned.

What is the flame reaction? Touching the flame with different chemical elements, interesting scientific phenomena happen.