What can be found in unidentifiable chemicals?

Answer 1

Suppose you are trying to find out what chemicals are in a sample. Suppose also that this is very difficult and you know that there are some chemicals in the sample which you cannot put a name to. Then you have some unidentifiable chemicals. In a good chemical laboratory, they should have all the equipment and test materials to find out what almost any sample is made of.

For example, you can test for many things by sprinkling small samples into a flame and looking at the colour of the flame. Anything containing copper, copper oxides or any other molecules containig copper atoms will usually turn a flame green. Salt makes a flame bright orange.

You can test samples by weighing them to see if they contain heavy materials or by heating them to see if they melt or catch fire. All these tests tell you something about what chemicals are in a sample.

If none of the tests you try tell you anything you don't already know, then you have an unidentifiable chemical.