Does the emission spectrum produced by burning metal salts in a flame arise from the chloride anion or the metal cation? Design a simple experiment that would confirm this.

 

The emission spectrum produced by burning metal salts in a flame arises from the metal cation. This can be verified by burning several metal salts that each contain the chloride anion but have different cations. If the results show that the salts lead to the same color flame, it must be that the chloride anion is responsible for the color because this is the only thing common to all of the salts. On the other hand, if the results show that the salts lead to different colored flames, it cannot be the chloride anion responsible for the color since they all share this in common and it must be the cation. For example, when potassium chloride is burned it will give off a purple flame while sodium chloride will give off orange. Using more salts would further show that the different salts will yield different results so it is the metal cation responsible, not the chloride anion.