The bead test is a traditional part of qualitative inorganic analysis to test for the presence of certain metals. The oldest one is the borax bead test or blister test. It was introduced by Berzelius in 1812.''Materials Handbook: A Concise Desktop Reference'', François Cardarell

/ref> Since then other salts were used as fluxing agents, such as sodium carbonate or

sodium fluoride Sodium fluoride (NaF) is an inorganic compound with the formula . It is used in trace amounts in the fluoridation of drinking water, in toothpaste, in metallurgy, and as a flux. It is a colorless or white solid that is readily soluble in water. I ...

. The most important one after borax is

microcosmic salt Microcosmic salt (see infobox for other names) is a salt found in urine with the formula Na(NH4)HPO4. It is left behind in the residues after extracting the urea from dried urine crystals with alcohol. In the mineral form, microcosmic salt is call ...

, which is the basis of the microcosmic salt bead test.

Borax bead

A small loop is made in the end of a

platinum Platinum is a chemical element with the symbol Pt and atomic number 78. It is a dense, malleable, ductile, highly unreactive, precious, silverish-white transition metal. Its name originates from Spanish , a diminutive of "silver". Pla ...

wire and heated in a Bunsen burner flame until red hot. A stick made of another inert substance such as a magnesia stick (MgO) may also be used. It is then dipped into powdered

borax Borax is a salt ( ionic compound), a hydrated borate of sodium, with chemical formula often written . It is a colorless crystalline solid, that dissolves in water to make a basic solution. It is commonly available in powder or granular for ...

and held in the hottest part of the flame where it swells up as it loses its

water of crystallization In chemistry, water(s) of crystallization or water(s) of hydration are water molecules that are present inside crystals. Water is often incorporated in the formation of crystals from aqueous solutions. In some contexts, water of crystallization i ...

and then shrinks, forming a colourless, transparent glass-like bead (a mixture of

sodium metaborate Sodium metaborate is a chemical compound of sodium, boron, and oxygen with formula . However, the metaborate ion is trimeric in the anhydrous solid, therefore a more correct formula is or . The formula can be written also as · to highlight the ...

and boric anhydride). The bead is allowed to cool and then wetted and dipped into the sample to be tested such that only a tiny amount of the substance adheres to the bead. If too much substance is used, the bead will become dark and opaque. The bead and adhering substance is then heated in the lower, reducing, part of the flame, allowed to cool, and the colour observed. It is then heated in the upper,

oxidizing Redox (reduction–oxidation, , ) is a type of chemical reaction in which the oxidation states of substrate change. Oxidation is the loss of electrons or an increase in the oxidation state, while reduction is the gain of electrons or a d ...

, part of the flame, allowed to cool, and the colour observed again. Characteristic coloured beads are produced with salts of

copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

iron Iron () is a chemical element with Symbol (chemistry), symbol Fe (from la, Wikt:ferrum, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 element, group 8 of the periodic table. It is, Abundanc ...

, chromium,

manganese Manganese is a chemical element with the symbol Mn and atomic number 25. It is a hard, brittle, silvery metal, often found in minerals in combination with iron. Manganese is a transition metal with a multifaceted array of industrial alloy use ...

cobalt Cobalt is a chemical element with the symbol Co and atomic number 27. As with nickel, cobalt is found in the Earth's crust only in a chemically combined form, save for small deposits found in alloys of natural meteoric iron. The free element, p ...

and

nickel Nickel is a chemical element with symbol Ni and atomic number 28. It is a silvery-white lustrous metal with a slight golden tinge. Nickel is a hard and ductile transition metal. Pure nickel is chemically reactive but large pieces are slow ...

. After the test, the bead is removed by heating it to fusion point, and plunging it into a vessel of water.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bead Test Chemical tests ru:Перл (химия)

Borax bead

See Also

References