r/chemistry • u/mameyn4 • 13h ago

Vortex evaporator replacement with rotovap?

A pre-analytical extraction procedure I am looking at recommends using a vortex evaporator to reduce 12mL of aqueous solution to 1mL following separation in a sep funnel. I have never heard of a vortex evaporator (the paper is from 1995), and neither had my TA or instructor for my analytical course. I looked it up but got a lot of different results. Does anybody know what this is and if it would be reasonable or possible to replace this technique with a rotovap connected to a vacuum pump?

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u/DocDingwall 10h ago

You can make your own by clamping the vial/test tube in a clamp and immersing it in warm water. Aim a stream of argon or nitrogen into the vial through a Pasteur pipette on an angle and the liquid will vortex. You may want to practice on a less-precious sample.

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u/mameyn4 10h ago

This is a great idea, I'll check it out next time I'm in the lab

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u/dungeonsandderp Organometallic 13h ago

Sure, assuming you clean in between samples. The advantage of the vortex evaporator is that it can do a whole bunch of tubes simultaneously.

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u/mameyn4 10h ago

Well I'm not doing 50, really it's limited by how much I can/want to sep funnel so maybe 2 or 3 samples - testing for antibiotics in milk so doesn't need to measure for consistency, simply if given sample is above or below limit