Rotational-Vacuum-Concentrators

The Process

Rotational vacuum concentration or centrifugal evaporation are used in the evaporation, drying, purification and concentrating of samples. This method is an alternative to the following processes:

• Distillation systems and rotational evaporators use high temperatures and are working next to normal pressure.
• Freeze-drying systems operating at very low temperatures and high vacuum levels. Although sublimation (the direct transformation from frozen solid to steam) protects the sample, it is time consuming.

Rotational-Vacuum-Concentrators provide a method between the two above processes. The sample solvent evaporates at room temperature, at low pressure and without having to be frozen. This occurs relatively quickly. There is no thermal strain on the sample which is important when working with thermally sensitive biological or clinical substances. The material is rotated at a moderate centrifugal speed of 1.350 to 1.550 min-1. The resulting gravitational force prevents the product from spitting and bumping. The solvent can collected in traps and may be reused or discarded.

The economically efficient rotation vacuum concentrator

• no sample foaming, minimal sample loss
• simultaneous, multiple sample drying
• concentration of sample on tube bottom (other than in vortex-shaker), an advantage when using small volumes of thin solutions
• suitable for drying of water and solvent-containing substances for volumes of less than 1 ml up to 3 liters
• reproducible drying processes through control of process parameters such as rotor chamber temperature (energy input for evaporation) and vacuum (including the automatic setting of optimal pressure, depending on pump system equipment)
• safe and simple solvent recovery

Possible applications

• DNA/RNA (solvents mainly water, ethanol, methanol)
• Oligo-synthesis, peptides
• PCR (polymer chain reaction)
• HPLC (solvent mainly water/acetonitril)
• Isolation/synthesis of organic substances
• Storing and handling of substances (substance libraries)
• Combinational chemistry
• High-throughput-screening (HTS)
• Analysis of food and environment
• General laboratory evaporation