1. If all you are doing is identifying meal ions, the contamination of the HCl with Al will not affect the results at all UNLESS the Al energy overlaps one of those from the unknown. Why? Because it takes a certain amount of energy for the Al lines to appear and it takes A DIFFERENT energy for almost any other ion so there is no problem. You might get an emission spectrum that has Al lines as well as those of the unknown material but that won't make any difference as long as an unknown line doesn't appear EXACTLY over an Al line.
2. It takes x joules to excite a K atom whether it is in KNO3, K2SO$, K3PO4, or whatever. That is, a K line is a K line is K line. Period. So it won't make a significant difference whether one sees a K line or not; however, it often makes a difference in the INTENSITY of a K line from different compounds but not for the wavelength one sees from the K line emission spectrum.
1. A student uses 6M HCl solution contaminated with Al(NO3)3 to wash the nichrome wire in between recordings of emission spectra for the different known and unknown metal ion solutions. The emission energies for the aluminum are 3.90x10^-19 J/atom, 3.58x10^-19 J/atom, and 2.97x10^-19 J/atom. How might this experimenntal error affect the identification of the metal ions present in the unknown sample? Why or why not
I am guessing yes, but I am not so sure why it would.
2. A student records two potassium emission spectra: 1) one using 0.10 M KNO3 solution; 2) one using a 0.10 M K2SO4. Will significant differences be observed in the two emission spectra? Why or Why Not? Not quite sure how to answer this...
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