How to speed up the rotary evaporation process?

Rotary evaporator is a commonly used equipment in the laboratory to quickly remove volatile solvents from sample solutions. Typical rotary evaporators are equipped with a heated water bath to prevent the solvent from cooling down significantly during the evaporation process, ensuring smooth evaporation.

How to speed up the evaporation process for laboratory rotary evaporator?

1. Increase the size of the container

When a large container (usually a round-bottom flask) is used for rotary evaporation, a larger area of solvent film will be formed in the flask, and more solvent mass will be heated per unit time, and the evaporation efficiency will be higher.

2. Adjust the temperature

Increasing the water bath temperature can increase the evaporation rate, but it needs to be operated with caution to avoid overheating or causing unexpected reactions or solvent boiling.

3. Increase the speed

Higher speed is conducive to better mixing of fluids and increases the surface area of the liquid film formed on the inner wall of the flask per unit time, but if the speed is too high, it will cause fluid turbulence, thereby slowing down the distillation rate.

4. Increase the vacuum level

Increasing the vacuum level in the system will reduce the boiling point of the solvent, thereby accelerating the evaporation rate. However, it needs to be adjusted with caution, because too high a vacuum may cause bubbling or solvent boiling.

In addition, the vacuum pump equipped with the rotary vacuum evaporator ensures that the solvent is evaporated below its normal boiling point and then captured by the condenser for easy recycling or other treatment.