Question
Question: Explain the difference between emission and absorption spectra....
Explain the difference between emission and absorption spectra.
Solution
When white light or radiation is passed through a prism a spectrum can be observed consisting of different colours, which could be termed as the continuous spectrum.
But when the electrons from an atom absorb energy from the surrounding and reaches a higher energy level from the ground state, it comes back to the ground state by release of energy which is not continuous and it forms a spectrum having two different components, which are absorption and emission spectrum.
Complete step-by-step answer:
In order to differentiate between the absorption and emission spectrum, we need to define both the terms. At first, in the case of emission spectrum, when the electrons of an atom absorb energy from the surrounding, it jumps from lower energy level to the higher ones. Now, when this electron returns to the ground state of the atom, it releases energy so as to become stable, as we know that higher the energy lesser is the stability. So this energy forms the emission spectrum.
In the absorption spectrum, the dark bands which are created during the process of the emission, constitute this spectrum. One of the major differences between the absorption spectrum and the emission spectrum is that the absorption spectrum has dark lines and the emission spectrum has different coloured lines.
| Emission spectrum | Absorption spectrum |
|---|---|
| It is created when the atoms of an element releases energy | It is created when the atoms of an element absorbs energy |
| Constitutes of coloured lines which can be seen in the spectrum | It constitutes the dark lines in the spectrum |
| It can be used to derive the composition of a specific material | It is helpful in figuring out the capability of materials to retain heat |
| The type of the particles of photons which are emitted can be used to figure out the kind of the element a certain material is made up of, as each element has a unique level of energy emission | The frequency of the light absorbed by the substance can tell us about the number of substances in the sample. |
Note: The absorption and the emission of the spectrum regarding different kinds of gases are observed to be different.
Hence these spectra are helpful in more than one ways in figuring out the type of the gas which is under consideration.