There are 8 piles of powders, containing calcium chloride, boric acid, potassium chloride, lithium chloride, copper sulfate, strontium chloride, sodium chloride and barium oxide in the petri dish. With 95% alcohol as a combustion improver, and result in a dish of colorful flame. The basic premise is that heat from a flame gives atoms enough energy that their electrons become excited. Dropping to a more stable energy state involves the release of photons. These photons have a frequency (light color) that is a characteristic of the element.
However, not all elements release light in the visible portion of the spectrum. Some elements don’t change a flame’s color at all. For example, gold, silver, platinum, and palladium do not yield a flame test result. However, some of these metals produce sparks in a flame and other deposit pure metal onto a surface. When heated, the electrons in the metal ion gain energy and can jump into higher energy levels. Because this is energetically unstable, the electrons tend to fall back down to where they were before, releasing energy as they do so. This energy is released as light energy, and as these transitions vary from one metal ion to another, it leads to the characteristic colors given by each metal ion. Lithium, for example, burns to produce a miraculous red-purple flame, while boron burns to produce a vivid green flame.
