A rotary evaporator (rotovap or rotatvap) refers to a kind of equipment for solvent evaporation under reduced pressure, which is composed of a vacuum system, a heated water or oil bath, a condenser and a motor that rotates the evaporation flask. As its name suggests, what makes it special is that the evaporation flask can rotate.
Parts of a Rotary Evaporator and Their Functions
In a rotary evaporator system, there are several parts working together to achieve the evaporation function of a rotary evaporator. Each and every part in a rotary evaporator is very essential, so let’s see the parts and their functions:
- Water oil bath: it is the heating source in the rotary evaporator system, which is to provide heating energy for the evaporation flask, in order to get materials in the evaporation flask evaporated.
- Control panel: users can adjust the setting temperature of water oil bath through control panel of the water oil bath. Besides, users can also adjust the height and speed of evaporation flask through the control panel of the holder.
- Evaporation flask: materials get heated in this container, and get evaporated when the setting temperature reaches the boiling points of the substances.
- Chiller: it is the cooling source in the rotary evaporator system, which is to provide cooling energy for the condenser tube. Chiller is to cool the gas-phase evaporated substances down, so that users can collect the target substances easily.
- Vacuum pump: it is to offer a vacuum environment for the whole system. Because the whole reaction process is under the reduced pressure, and vacuum pump can create a reduced pressure environment. What’s more, the pressure difference between internal vacuum environment and atmosphere pressure makes the automatic feeding system, which is very convenient to operate.
- Stainless steel holder: it is to hold the evaporation flask, condenser and the receiving flask, which is to connect most of the parts together.
- Condenser: gas-phase evaporated substances can get chilled in the condense tube, which get cooling energy from the chiller.
- Receiving flask: it is the container to collect the final target substances. Users can take the receiving flask when they end collecting the liquid-phase target substances.
How does a Rotary Evaporator Evaporate Water?
A rotary evaporator is a device that can get substances evaporated to concentrate, separate, and purify materials. Therefore, a rotary evaporator absolutely can evaporate water, which is just the basic function of a rotary evaporator.
What is a Rrotary Evaporator in Chemistry?
A rotary evaporator plays an important role in chemistry, which is to separate different kinds of substances, concentrate and purify materials and so on.
In chemical labs, people always separate one kind of substance from the sample materials, in order to achieve the recombination of materials. Therefore, a rotary evaporator is essential in chemical field.
Is a Rotary Evaporator Distillation?
In essence, a rotary evaporator can be regarded as a kind of reduced pressure distillation. As it is mentioned above, the entire working process of a rotovap takes place in a partial vacuum or reduced pressure environment created by the vacuum pump. The round-bottom flask containing the solution is placed in the water bath of the equipment, and rotated when the system is partially evacuated by a vacuum pump.
