Specific Details about Flame Photometer

1. FLAME PHOTOMETRY
FAHAD RAZA
Master’s Student
Sindh Agriculture University Tandojam Sindh Pakistan

2. Contents
• Introduction
• Instrumentation
• Parts of Flame Photometer
• Structure of flame
• Mechanism
• Applications

3. Introduction
• Flame Photometry is a branch of spectroscopy in
which the species (metal ions) i.e., sodium,
potassium, lithium, calcium, Cesium etc.” used in the
spectrum are in the form of atoms.
• Flame Photometery is used for inorganic chemical
analysis for determining the concentration of certain
metal ions.

4. Instrumentation
Parts of a flame photometer
• Source of Flame
• Nebulizer and Mixing Chamber
• Optical System (Optical Filter):
• Photo Detector

5. Instrumentation

6. Parts of a flame photometer
Source of flame
• A burner that provides flame and can be maintained
in a constant form and at a constant temperature.

7. Parts of a flame photometer
Structure of Flame
As seen in the figure, the flame may be divided into the
following regions or zones.
• Preheating zones
• Primary reaction zone or inner zone
• Internal zone
• Secondary reaction zone

8. Parts of a flame photometer
• preheating zone- In this, combustion mixture is
heated to the ignition temperature by thermal
conduction from the primary reaction zone.
• primary reaction zone- This zone is about 0.1 mm
thick at atmospheric pressure There is no
thermodynamic equilibrium in this zone and the
concentration of ions and free radicals is very high.
This region is not used for flame photometry.

9. Parts of a flame photometer
• interconal zone – It can extend up to considerable
height. The maximum temperature is achieved just
above the tip of the inner zone. This zone is used for
flame photometry.
• secondary reaction zone - In this zone, the products
of the combustion processes are burnt to stable
molecular species by the surrounding air.

10. Parts of a flame photometer
Nebulizer and Mixing Chamber:
• Helps to transport the homogeneous solution of the
substance into the flame at a steady rate

11. Parts of a flame photometer
Optical System (Optical Filter):
• The optical system comprises three parts: convex
mirror, lens and filter.
• The convex mirror helps to transmit light emitted
from the atoms and focus the emissions to the lens.
• The convex lens help to focus the light on a point
called slit.
• The reflections from the mirror pass through the slit
and reach the filters.

12. Parts of a flame photometer
Photo Detector
• Detect the emitted light and measure the intensity of
radiation emitted by the flame.
• That is, the emitted radiation is converted to an
electrical signal with the help of photo detector.
• The produced electrical signals are directly
proportional to the intensity of light

13. Parts of a flame photometer
Element Emission
Wavelength (nm)
Colour
Sodium (Na) 589 Yellow
Potassium (K) 766 Violet
Barium (Ba) 554 Lime Green
Calcium (Ca) 662 Orange
Lithium (Li) 670 Red

14. Mechanism of working
• The solvent is first evaporated leaving fine divided
solid particles.
• This solid particle move towards the flame, where the
gaseous atoms and ions are produced.
• The ions absorb the energy from the flame and
excited to high energy levels.
• When the atoms return to the ground state radiation
of the characteristic element is emitted.
• The intensity of emitted light is related to the
concentration of the element.

15. Brief overview of the process

16. Applications
It is used
• To determination of alkali and alkaline earth metals.
• In Potash and fertilizer industry
• Soil and environmental analysis
• For Drinking water treatment
• In Glass industry
• For Clinical applications

17. THANK YOU