Why Does This Reaction occur?

[Connor Park]

I was recently messing around and put a copper wire into a ethyl alcohol flame, the flame turned green from its typical blue, why does this happen?

Heres a vid of it so you can see it occur

 

[studiot]

Green is the normal characteritic colour of copper in a flame, why do you think the alcohol makes a difference?

The gases in the flame are the result of alcohol combustion, not alcohol anyway.

But flame tests are part of chemistry note what they say here about the oxidation state of the copper

https://www.thoughtco.com/flame-test-colors-photo-gallery-4053133

 

Was ther a black deposit on the wire after heating?

 

There's lots on the web about flame tests, including this interesting puzzle from the Royay Society of Chemistry.

http://www.rsc.org/learn-chemistry/resources/gridlocks/downloads/answers/Flame Tests ans.pdf

 

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=copper+flame+test&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-b&gfe_rd=cr&dcr=0&ei=_8IKWo2yBYL98wf9xL_IDQ

[John Cuthber]

The blue colour  you sometimes see with copper is due to CuCl- it's not clear where the chloride is from. Traces of PVC insulation from the wire might explain why you think copper usually gives a blue flame.

Traces of sodium will turn the flame yellow and that will mix with the blue.

So any colours of blue, green and yellow are possible.

[Sensei]

1 hour ago, John Cuthber said:

Traces of sodium will turn the flame yellow and that will mix with the blue.

Therefor light from flame should be split by prism to be able see spectral lines..