Review: Basic construction of distillation apparatus

1. Evaporation part - where the mixture is made to evaporate by heating.

2. Separation/fractional part - This is where the actual separation of solvent and nonvolatile or less
volatile components takes place.
3. Condensation/cooling part
4. Collection part - where the various condensates are collected.
What is a rotary evaporator?
A rotary evaporator is a specially designed instrument for the evaporationof solvent (singlestage or straight distillation) under vacuum.

Principle of operation of Rotary evaporators

A rotary evaporator is an instrument used to evaporate solvents under vacuum with the use of rotation
and heat.
The vacuum is used to lower the
boiling temperature thus minimising
damage to thermolabile substances.
Rotation is used to distribute the
liquid as a thin film over the flask
surface thus increasing the surface
area for evaporation.
Heat is applied through immersion of
the flask in a water bath. Rotation
leads to more efficient temperature
transfer and reduces bumping and foaming compared with static distillation.
As a result the evaporation rate is regulated by:

heating bath temperature,

size of flask,

vacuum pressure, and

speed of rotation.

The rotovap takes advantage of the low boiling points of solvents by creating an
environment where the solvent will rapidly boil off leaving only your product.

Conditions that are most conducive to boiling are: low air pressure and high
temperature.