Lab

Unknown Lab Write-Up

I started my unknown lab by doing the flame test. I thought that if I started with this test and followed with the borax bead test I could narrow down which anion I thought it was without spending too much time. My first sample (1123) turned out sort of red in the flame test so I thought it was Strontium but wasn’t positive. After doing the borax bead and all of the other anion tests I decided to guess. I didn’t have anything else to go off of except for my notes from the flame test so I wasn’t sure, but it turned out that it was correct and I went on to my next anion.

My second sample (416) as a whole was more challenging to figure out than my second sample. After the flame test I was positive that it had to be Potassium because it was the only anion that turned out lavender in the flame test. I went ahead and did all of the other anion tests just to make sure. The Lead test also was positive so I wasn’t sure which one to guess. I knew it had to be one or the other and since I had two guesses I wasn’t too worried about it. I guessed Potassium wrong and it was Lead. I think that maybe since it was Strontium Nitrate (Sr(NO3)2) that it may have reacted similar to Potassium in the flame test.

All of the cation tests were fairly strait forward. For my first sample I did the Nitrate test and it turned out positive so I went up and guessed Nitrate and it was right. My second sample however would not cooperate. Three out of five of the tests turned out positive so I had no idea what it was. I kept redoing the tests and sometimes they would turn out positive and sometimes negative even though I was doing the same thing over and over again. I got frustrated very quickly and guessed Sulfate because there was a precipitate. When I found out it was wrong I went and did the cation tests one more time. This time Chloride turned out positive.