What is a Rotovap Used for?
A rotary evaporator (rotovap or rotatvap) refers to a kind of equipment for solvent evaporation under reduced pressure. It is primarily used for the process of evaporation, concentration, crystallization, drying, separation, and solvent recovery, and especially used for the continuous distillation of large amounts of volatile solvents under reduced pressure. With so many application purposes, there is no doubt that a rotary evaporator can be applied in many areas. For example, it can be used in the small and pilot experiments and production in the biological, pharmaceutical, chemical fields and even food-making industries.
How does a Rotary Evaporator Remove Solvent?
Removing solvent is a quite common activity in chemical labs. There are several equipment that can get materials evaporated to remove solvent, such as rotary evaporator, short path distillation, falling film evaporator, molecular distillation and some other distillation equipment. Today, let’s talk about how a rotary evaporator removes solvent.
A rotary evaporator is a device that can separate, concentrate, purify materials through getting them evaporated. During the working process of a rotary evaporator, the sample materials firstly are put into the evaporation flask in order to be get evaporated. Then after the sample materials get evaporated, the evaporated substances will be transferred into the next part, which is condenser tube. In the condenser tube, gas-phase evaporated substances will be cooled into liquid-phase substances, which is more convenient for users to collect it.
Working Principle of Removing Solvent
The working principle of removing solvent is to place the sample materials in the evaporation flask into the water bath of the device and rotate while the system is partially evacuated (via a water absorber or vacuum pump). The reduced pressure in the device causes the solvent to boil at a temperature lower than normal (see vacuum distillation). Rotating the flask will increase the surface area of the liquid, in order to increase the evaporation rate. All in all, removing solvent is to get materials evaporated out of the mixtures.
Features of a Rotary Evaporator
- Particularly suitable for the concentration, crystallization, and separation solvent recovery of heat-sensitive materials;
- Science field and education field, biology field, medicine field, chemical industry, industrial field, food-making field and other industries;
- Stainless steel chassis, water oil bath, shell, main rod, aluminum alloy castings, beautiful appearance and corrosion resistance, frequency converters, electronic components are imported from abroad;
- The glass instrument is made of GG-17 high temperature borosilicate glass with good physical and chemical properties;
- Thin film formed by rotation.
Tips for Using a Rotary Evaporator
- The glass parts should be handled lightly, cleaned, and dried before installation.
- Water must be added before the heating tank is energized. Drying without water is not allowed.
- Each grinding mouth, sealing surface sealing ring and joints need to be coated with vacuum grease before installation.
- RE-52B must be screwed into the safety hole to prevent damage to the flask.
