Flame Emission Spectroscopy

• Flame emission spectroscopy, also known as flame photometry, is a method that involves heating metal ions in a flame to emit light, with the wavelengths of the light indicating the specific metal ion being heated.
• In the flame test, a quick and simple method, the metal is heated over a Bunsen burner flame to observe the color of the flame, which can be problematic if the metals being compared have similar colors or if the sample contains multiple metals.
• Flame emission spectroscopy overcomes the limitations of the flame test by using a spectroscope to detect the individual wavelengths of light emitted by the metal ions.
• Every different metal ion produces a different pattern of wavelengths, known as a line spectrum, which can be used to identify that metal ion.
• The intensity of the lines on the spectrum indicates the concentration of the ion, making it possible to find the concentrations of particular ions in a solution.
• The main advantage of flame emission spectroscopy is that it can identify multiple different metal ions in a sample, as the line spectrum will show the lines for all of them.
• If a sample contains multiple different metal ions, the line spectrum will show the lines for all of them.
• Scientists or computer programs can identify the ions that are in the unknown sample and calculate the concentrations of each ion by comparing the line spectrum of an unknown sample to lots of standard line spectra for known metal ions.
• The three main benefits of instrumental methods are that they're very accurate, very sensitive, and very fast.