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Organic Extraction Lab

Soxhlet Extraction

Principle: The solvent is heated to reflux. The solvent vapour travels up a distillation arm and floods into the chamber housing the thimble of solid. The condenser ensures that any solvent vapour cools, and drips back down into the chamber housing the solid material. Some of the desired compound dissolves in the warm solvent. When the Soxhlet chamber is almost full, the chamber is emptied by the siphon. The solvent is returned to the distillation flask. The thimble ensures that the rapid motion of the solvent does not transport any solid material to the still pot. This cycle may be allowed to repeat many times, over hours or days.

Applications: Extraction of wide range of sample matrices including soil, sediment, air filter, Biota and Vegetation.

Microwave Extraction (Milestone Ethos SEL with controllers)

Principle: The Microwave Extraction procedure uses microwave energy to produce elevated temperature and pressure conditions (i.e., 100 -1150 C and 50 - 175 psi) in a closed vessel containing the sample and organic solvent using less solvent and taking significantly less time than the Soxhlet procedure.

Applications: Extraction of sample matrices including soil and sediment.

Accelerated Solvent Extractor (Dionex)

Principle: Accelerated solvent extraction, or ASE, is a new extraction technique that is similar in principle to Soxhlet extraction, but the use of elevated temperature and pressure with ASE allows the extraction to be completed within a short time and using less solvent and labor. Uses elevated temperatures (40–200 °C) and pressures (500–3000 psi) accelerates the extraction process.

Applications: Extraction of solid and semi-solid sample matrices.

Automated Solvent Extractor (VELP)

Principle: The Automated solvent extractor can be used to separate a substance or a group of elements (e.g. fat) from solid and semi-solid samples with accurate and precise solution for quantitative and qualitative extractable matter determination according to Randall method (consisting of immersion, washing and solvent recovery)., analyzing up to 5 times faster than traditional Soxhlet as the method uses hot/boiling solvents for extraction. The solid-liquid extraction process removes the soluble components from solids using a liquid solvent.

Applications: The main field of application is the determination of the content of soluble products such as fats, detergents, plasticizers and pesticides in food, animal feeds, detergents, rubber and plastic formulas, pharmaceutical products, soil, etc.

Separatory Funnel Extraction

Principle: A separatory funnel is used in liquid-liquid extractions to separate (partition) the components of a mixture into two immiscible solvent phases of different densities. Typically, one of the phases will be aqueous, and the other a non-polar lipophilic organic solvent which form a clear delineation between the two liquids. The two layers formed are usually known as the organic and aqueous phases. Most organic solvents float on top of an aqueous phase, though important exceptions are most halogenated solvents. The organic solvent used for the extraction must not react with the substance to be extracted or with water. It should also have a low boiling point so it can be easily removed from the product.

Applications: Extraction of Immiscible liquids & Water.

Fluorescence Spectrophotometer (FluoroMax -3)

Principle: In fluorescence spectroscopy, the species is first excited, by absorbing a photon, from its ground electronic state to one of the various vibrational states in the excited electronic state. The different wavelengths of fluorescent light emitted by a sample are measured using a monochromator, holding the excitation light at a constant wavelength.

Applications: Determination of petroleum hydrocarbons.

PARALLEL EVAPORATOR (BUTCHI)

Principle: Operating is based on fast sample evaporation by heating, orbital shaking and vacuum application of multiple samples. Closed sample vessels/tubes with sample solution or extract are placed inside glass cylinders filled with water on the Multivapor evaporation plate. Subsequently the required evaporation temperature, orbital movement and (optionally) vacuum conditions are applied, and fast extraction starts.  With the help of the vacuum gradient function of the Vacuum Controller V-855 smooth adjustment to the end-vacuum is possible. This function is also ideal for evaporating off solvent mixtures which typically accumulate after chromatography.

Applications: Sample preparation after extraction, Simple distillation.

TurboVap Concentrator (Zymark)

Principle: TurboVap is used for evaporation of large volumes of solvent after extraction. It is a microprocessor-controlled concentrator used for sample preparation that provides unattended, automated sample evaporation. It uses a patented gas vortex shearing action and optical sensors to provide fast and efficient evaporation of organic solvents. Optical sensors automatically stop gas flow when evaporation has reached its set time, thereby eliminating the risk of drying and loss of volatile compounds.

Applications: Sample preparation for GC Analysis after extraction.

ULTRASONIC BATH (Grant)

Principle: Ultrasonic bath uses cavitation bubbles induced by high frequency pressure (sound) waves to agitate a liquid. The agitation produces high forces on contaminants adhering to substrates like metals, plastics, glass, rubber, and ceramics. This action also penetrates blind holes, cracks, and recesses.

Applications: Sonication & extraction of ions from filter papers.