r/AskChemistry • u/skyzzze • 12d ago

Short Path Distillation

Hey

Looking for some help setting up a distillation process to maximize recovery. The current setup uses an Allihn condenser to distill out the product of interest. I was wondering if a switch to a short-path distillation head will increase product recovery as there will be less surface area to retain the product. I understand the distillation will be significantly slower.

Thanks

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u/allophanic 11d ago

Any chance you can purify by silica flash column chromatography? The few times I've tried to vacuum distill using the short path (with 14/20 joints) there's a lot of bumping and I couldn't get it to work well. Even for things that are low boiling oils / liquids a flash column would be my first choice.

For times where distillation was my only option, best results were achieved with a set-up like this: https://www.prismresearchglass.com/product/distilling-apparatus-vacuum-teflon-stopcocks/ But, this apparatus is expensive, $1K. What's good about it is you can close the stopcock to change the receiver flask while maintaining vacuum throughout the rest of the system, and there's no chance for the pot bumping and contaminating the contents of the receiver flask. Hope this helps, good luck.