Purpose: The purpose of this experiment is to identify cations that are present in a mixture of solution by doing a series of tests.

Background: The main goal of qualitative analysis is to identify substances that are present in a mixture. This process allows one to determine chemical properties of an unknown substance by reacting the unknown with multiple reagents. If the result of these reactions is known, the ions that are present can be identified. Sometimes the reactions are too general and cannot confirm or reject the presence of any one ion. In these cases, other tests must be run that only test for a particular ion in order to confirm its presence.