DEVELOPMENT OF A NEW, HIGH POWER CONDENSATION HEATING TECHNOLOGY TO ENABLE VERY FAST PARALLEL EVAPORATION, IN A SAFE AND CONTROLLED MANNER

The optimum method for removing solvent from large numbers of small (up to 20ml) samples at the same time is by centrifugal evaporation. Larger samples (e.g. synthesis products in round bottom flasks) can be fairly rapidly processed with a rotary evaporator, but this method accommodates one sample at a time. In addition, optimisation of a rotary evaporator for maximum throughput requires continuous monitoring by the user. Larger vessels can, with appropriate adapters, be placed in a centrifugal evaporator, however, the rate of evaporation is typically a lot less than that achieved by a rotary evaporator. This paper details a new development which enables a centrifugal evaporation system to achieve evaporation speeds comparable to a rotary evaporator.