Category Archives: Evaluations

The University of Nottingham and their use of the Smart Evaporator

Posted on: November 30, 2016

Interview with Dr Tom McInally at The University of Nottingham as to the benefits of the BioChromato Smart Evaporator

Q What type of laboratory are you in charge of?

A We have been using the Smart Evaporator particularly well in our Medicinal Chemistry teaching module in an undergraduate teaching laboratory where we synthesise and we send samples to our partner laboratory (Industrial Pharma company) for biological screening.

Q Why try the Smart Evaporator?

A To prepare a 3-5mg sample for biological screening in the vials of choice of our partner and 1 mg sample for LCMS analysis

Q How many types of vial are used in conjunction with your smart evaporator?

A Let me show you: From left to right (shown with smart evaporator Spiral Plugs) Larger volume storage vial, Test vial for partner screening system, Recovery vial for NMR samples, usually in DMSO works very well, LCMS vial sent to partner for QC.

spiral-plugs-nottingham

Q What are you generally evaporating?

A Final compounds after purification by Flash Chromatography, HPLC, SPE and after Crystallizations too. We find that by dissolving a known amount of compound we can then evaporate to dryness making it easy to get precise amounts of material per vial.

Q What did you use before the Smart evaporator?

A Before we had to use a standard Rotary Evaporator, it was not easy to do. We made a special adapter to fit the vials onto the Rotary Evaporator but contamination and bumping was a serious issue. The Smart Evaporator almost totally eliminates these issues. These small samples also tied up the Rotary Evaporator for long periods of time when it was more often needed (and suitable for) for large volume flask evaporation. We also found removing DMSO almost impossible with the Rotary Evaporator where as in the Smart Evaporator it works well.

Q Have you tried round Bottom Flask evaporation?

A Yes in small flasks of 25ml round bottom flasks it works well, especially taking water/methanol samples to dryness after SPE

Q Other post synthesis benefits?

A Allows ease to swap solvents so for instance removing Acetonitrile andDMF for ease of work up

Q What scales are you generally working on?

A 2-50mg per ml

Q How easy has it been to use the Smart evaporator?

A Undergraduate students have found it very easy to use unsupervised, they have also been very keen to continue using the Smart evaporator as its proven much easier to use than the Rotary Evaporators.

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Smart Evaporator C10 Evaluation: Anon, Analysis Div Chemical Manufacturer

Posted on: November 30, 2016

Smart Evaporator C10 Evaluation:  shared by BioChromato

“We are now able to concentrate multiple samples of water and mixed solvents, which had been necessary as a pre-processing step in component analysis, with just this one single instrument!” Mr O, member of the analysis team in the pharmaceutical products division of a chemical manufacturer says 

“In the past, we had to use numerous instruments to do our work—freeze-dryers, centrifugal evaporators, nitrogen blowers, and rotary evaporators—and we had to use different instruments for different samples. . . The great thing about the Smart Evaporator is that we can do everything at the pre-processing stage with just this one machine, no matter how much or which types of solvent we want to evaporate! This has allowed us to reduce the time required for a single operation by over 4 hours.”

“For liquid-liquid extraction, we sometimes use solvents like chloroform or hexane, and it’s surprising how few instruments out there can handle these substances. That makes the C10 all the more valuable.”

“The fact that the vacuum pump requires no oil changes, and that we can perform concentration as is, even with organic solvents, is a particularly attractive feature of the C10.”

“After we actually installed the C10, we were able to handle many different samples with just this single instrument, which increased our productivity as we were expecting. In the past, when using a freeze-dryer for solvents such as water, we had to keep an eye on things for an hour or so after starting, to make sure there was no bumping. Then, we would let the evaporation process take place overnight, but in some cases it still wasn’t finished the following morning.”

(Vessels used: 50-ml screw-cap vial; 10-ml screw-cap test tube. Solvents used: water; mixed solvents such as water mixed with acetonitrile or methanol. Sample volume: from less than 1 ml to as much as 150 ml or so.)

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CondenSyn Evaluation: Lauren Turner, University of Hull

Posted on: April 13, 2016

I think of the CondenSyn like a magic wand: you place it on top of your reaction that you want to reflux, use it with the DrySyn heating blocks and away you go. You have water free, oil free and hassle free reactions that still give brilliant results at the tap of your wand! Continue reading →

DrySyn Evaluation: Oliver Cartright, University of East Anglia

Posted on: November 12, 2015

DrySyn Evaluation:

“The DrySyn heating blocks have meant that the need for the oil baths has been removed. This has reduced issues arising regarding the disposal of the oil and also the possibility of spillages associated with their use. The DrySyn multi position heating blocks have also been beneficial when carrying out reactions on smaller scales with an aim of optimising certain conditions.”

Oliver Cartright, University of East Anglia, UK

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