Rotary Evaporator - Design

Design

The main components of a rotary evaporator are:

  1. A motor unit that rotates the evaporation flask or vial containing the user's sample.
  2. A vapor duct that is the axis for sample rotation, and is a vacuum-tight conduit for the vapor being drawn off of the sample.
  3. A vacuum system, to substantially reduce the pressure within the evaporator system.
  4. A heated fluid bath (generally water) to heat the sample.
  5. A condenser with either a coil passing coolant, or a "cold finger" into which coolant mixtures such as dry ice and acetone are placed.
  6. A condensate-collecting flask at the bottom of the condenser, to catch the distilling solvent after it re-condenses.
  7. A mechanical or motorized mechanism to quickly lift the evaporation flask from the heating bath.

The vacuum system used with rotary evaporators can be as simple as a water aspirator with a trap immersed in a cold bath (for non-toxic solvents), or as complex as a regulated mechanical vacuum pump with refrigerated trap. Glassware used in the vapor stream and condenser can be simple or complex, depending upon the goals of the evaporation, and any propensities the dissolved compounds might give to the mixture (e.g., to foam or "bump"). Commercial instruments are available that include the basic features, and various traps are manufactured to insert between the evaporation flask and the vapor duct. Modern equipment often adds features such as digital control of vacuum, digital display of temperature and rotational speed, and vapor temperature sensing.

Read more about this topic:  Rotary Evaporator

Famous quotes containing the word design:

    “I begin with a design for a hearse.
    For Christ’s sake not black—
    nor white either—and not polished!
    Let it be weathered—like a farm wagon—”
    —William Carlos Williams (1883–1963)

    “Joe ... you remember I said you wouldn’t be cheated?... Nobody is really. Eventually all things work out. There’s a design in everything.”
    —Sidney Buchman (1902–1975)

    “Humility is often only the putting on of a submissiveness by which men hope to bring other people to submit to them; it is a more calculated sort of pride, which debases itself with a design of being exalted; and though this vice transform itself into a thousand several shapes, yet the disguise is never more effectual nor more capable of deceiving the world than when concealed under a form of humility.”
    —François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)