We wish you a Happy 2017

Did you also enjoy sparkling red, orange, yellow, green, blue and purple colors exploding into the night sky on New Years Eve? The beautiful colors in fireworks are pure chemistry, created by the use of the right mix of different metal salts.

When heated, the atoms of each element in the mix absorb energy, causing the electrons to rearrange from their lowest energy state to a higher "excited" state. The excess energy when the electrons descend back to its ground state gets emitted as light. This released energy that varies from element to element is what determines the color or wavelength of the light.

If you follow our Periodic Table series you already read of a few compounds used in fireworks, most commonly include: strontium carbonate (red), calcium chloride (orange), sodium nitrate (yellow), barium chloride (green) and copper chloride (blue). Purple fireworks are typically produced by use of a mixture of strontium and copper compounds.

We wish you a bright and fantastic 2017.