This exam focus covers Exam Focus within Flame Tests for GCSE Chemistry. Revise Flame Tests in Chemical Analysis for GCSE Chemistry with 22 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This is a high-frequency topic, so it is worth revising until the explanation feels precise and repeatable. It is section 11 of 13 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
🎯 Exam Focus
Very High Frequency
What Examiners Ask About Flame Tests
- "Name the flame colour for [metal ion]" — must be precise: "crimson red", "orange-yellow", "lilac", "orange-red", "blue-green" (1 mark each)
- "Describe the flame test method" — include cleaning the wire in HCl (3–4 marks)
- "Explain why the nichrome wire must be cleaned" — removes previous metal ion contamination that would give false colour (1–2 marks)
- "Explain why blue glass is used for potassium" — filters out sodium's yellow, makes lilac visible (2 marks)
- "Explain why metals produce different flame colours" — electron excitation and emission at different energy levels / wavelengths (3 marks Higher)
- "State a limitation of flame tests" — similar colours, cannot detect all metals, contamination (1 mark)
Edexcel 1CH0: Examined in Paper 2 (1CH0/2). Edexcel CP12 covers flame tests and chemical tests for metal ions — know the colours for Li, Na, K, Ca, Cu and be able to identify unknown ions from test results. In Edexcel-style questions, the command word "Suggest" appears frequently — use your chemistry knowledge to apply to an unfamiliar context.
Practice questions for Flame Tests
Which type of wire is used to carry out a flame test?
Explain why different metal ions produce different colours in flame tests.