Rotary evaporator facts for kids
A rotary evaporator, often called a rotavap, is a cool piece of equipment used in science labs. Its main job is to remove liquids, called solvents, from other substances by making them evaporate.
Imagine you have sugar dissolved in water. A rotavap can take away the water, leaving just the sugar behind. Scientists use these machines all the time to clean up chemicals or to get a solid substance after it was mixed in a liquid.
How a Rotavap Works
A liquid is placed in a special round glass flask. This flask is then attached to the rotavap. The machine does three main things at once:
- It spins the flask, spreading the liquid thinly on the inside. This helps it evaporate faster.
- It heats the flask gently, usually with a warm water bath.
- It creates a vacuum inside the flask. This means it removes most of the air, lowering the pressure.
Lowering the pressure is super important! It makes the liquid boil and turn into a gas at a much lower temperature than normal. This is great for chemicals that might get damaged by high heat.
Separating Substances
As the liquid turns into a gas, it moves up into a cooling coil. This coil is kept very cold, often with cold water. When the hot gas touches the cold coil, it turns back into a liquid. This process is called condensation. The newly liquid solvent then drips into a separate flask, leaving the original substance behind in the first flask.
For example, if you have salty water, the water will evaporate and condense into the collection flask, leaving the dry salt in the original flask. This is a quick and efficient way to separate mixtures.
Why Use a Rotavap?
Rotary evaporators are much faster and more efficient than just letting liquids evaporate in an open dish. They are also very useful for a process called distillation, which is another way to separate liquids based on their boiling points.
Images for kids
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A robot, symbolizing technology and science.
See also
In Spanish: Evaporador rotativo para niños
