======Methanol Flame Colors======


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**Materials: **{{$demo.materials_description}}\\
**Difficulty: **{{$demo.difficulty_description}}\\
**Safety: **{{$demo.safety_description}}\\
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**Alternative titles:** Rainbow Flames with Metal Salts
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====Summary====                   
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====Procedure====  
  - Clear a flame-resistant bench and place five heat-safe borosilicate Petri dishes on ceramic squares, spaced at least 8 cm apart.
  - Add 5–7 g of a different dry chloride salt to each dish: sodium chloride, strontium chloride, copper(II) chloride, lithium chloride, and potassium chloride.
  - Pipette about 7–10 mL methyl alcohol to each dish so the crystals are just wetted. Cap the alcohol bottle immediately and move it well away from the area.
  - Dim the lights. Ignite each dish with a long-neck lighter and observe the characteristic colors as the alcohol burns and dissolves the salts.
  - After observation, smother each dish with its lid or an inverted 600 mL beaker to extinguish.
  - Allow all glassware to cool completely before touching or repeating the display.



====Links==== 
Rainbow Flame! Coloured Fire Experiment! - Thoioi2: 
{{youtube>NY-bnY0yjWw?}}\\

The rainbow flame demonstration - Royal Society of Chemistry: 
{{youtube>TOyDzOc2AaI?}}\\

📄 Methyl Alcohol Flame Tests - Flinn Scientific: [[https://www.flinnsci.ca/api/library/Download/841f94471d9a4cabb2651a5c48f5dfd5]]\\

====Variations====
  * Prepare 1.0 M aqueous salt solutions and do splint flame tests at a Bunsen burner as a lower-risk alternative.
  * View flames through a simple spectroscope or diffraction grating to see line spectra, then estimate dominant wavelengths.
  * Add borax, barium chloride or calcium chloride in additional dishes to expand the color set.



====Safety Precautions====
  * Wear safety glasses.
  * Keep the methyl alcohol bottle capped and away from the demo once dispensing is finished. Do not add alcohol to a hot or lit dish.
  * Be aware that methyl alcohol flames can be nearly invisible. Confirm extinguishment by covering the dish; never blow on flames.
  * Work on a flame-resistant surface in good ventilation. Remove all other combustibles from the area.
  * Use only intact borosilicate glass Petri dishes. Do not use watch glasses.
  * Space dishes several inches apart to prevent fire spread. Have a fire extinguisher ready.
  * Some salts are harmful, check their material data sheets before handling.
  * Do not immediately repeat. Allow dishes and salts to cool to room temperature before any reset or disposal.





====Questions to Consider====
  * Which ion produced each observed flame color, and how reliably can color be used to identify an unknown?
  * How do electron excitations and relaxations in ions create discrete emission lines rather than a continuous spectrum?