Calcium Chloride in Bunsen Flame – part of our “Berzelius Day” uploading 24 videos in 24 hours. Full video containing this reaction at:
NOTE FROM THE PROFESSOR: If you heat salts in a bunsen flame you varpourize some of the metal ions, in this case Calcium and some of the atoms have excess energy which they emit as light at particular wavelengths characteristic of that element. For Calcium this light is red but, as Debbie says, her sample of CaCl2 may have had some traces of NaCl in it. Na gives off yellow/orange light (you can see it in some street lamps) and Na is more volatile than Ca so even a little in her sample could nearly swamp the colour of the calcium in the flame.
See our 24 reactions playlist as it unfolds at:
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From the School of Chemistry at The University of Nottingham:
Periodic Videos films are by video journalist Brady Haran
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