Rotary evaporator

A rotary evaporator is a special piece of laboratory equipment that helps scientists remove unwanted substances, such as solvents, from their samples. Imagine you have a cup of water that has a few drops of food coloring in it. You want to remove the food coloring, but you still want to keep the water. How would you do this? You could use a rotary evaporator!

Here's how it works: first, you put your sample in a round-bottomed flask (like a vase). Then you put the flask on the rotor unit of the rotary evaporator, which rotates rapidly. This causes the liquid in the flask to spread out in a thin film on the wall of the flask.

Next, you apply heat to the flask, which makes the liquid evaporate. The evaporated liquid collects in a condenser, which is a long glass tube that's coiled up like a spring. The condenser is cooled by water or air, so the evaporated liquid turns back into a liquid form and drips down into a collection flask.

The rotary evaporator allows you to separate the solvent (like the food coloring in the water) from your sample (like the water). This is because the solvent evaporates more quickly than your sample. As a result, you end up with your sample in the flask and the solvent in the collection flask.

In summary, a rotary evaporator is a tool in the lab that spins a flask with a sample in it, applies heat, and captures the evaporated material before it can escape.