SgtAltek
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Cleaning Water out of Graham Condenser
I need to distill some solution that absolutely cannot be exposed to water. Unfortunately, I have quite a bit of water left in my condenser coil from
my last distillation. I've had it tilted upside down for the past 2 days, but the water is still in there, and I don't think it is going to evaporate
any time soon. Any ideas on how to get it out?
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A Halogenated Substance
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I've heard and read that dried chlorine gas is sometimes used to dry equipment. Perhaps you could make a chlorine generator with a drying tube and
purge the condenser in a place really well ventilated?
Alternatively, if you don't want to bother with using chlorine, you could also try pouring some dry acetone down the condenser coil, having it carry
the water down with it, then air dry the condenser.
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TheMrbunGee
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You can blow air trough it using compressor.. Or put it in oven @ 130C+ for hour or more..
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gdflp
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It depends on the reaction. If you're doing something that is truly water sensitive, then the water will never "evaporate" as quite a bit gets
chemically bonded to the ends of the silica chains in the glass. To remove this water you need to bake the condenser in an oven for an hour or two.
If the reaction is only mildly sensitive to water, a few quick rinses with acetone will get rid of all the water quickly; the acetone is much more
volatile and can then be removed in a few minutes with a heat gun or a hair dryer.
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PirateDocBrown
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Yes, oven. A solvent like acetone, as gdflp says, though I mostly use methanol.
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woelen
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I first pour quite some acetone down the coil, then allow it to drip out of it. Next I pour a small amount of diethyl ether down the coil and finally,
I use a small aquarium pump to blow some air through the coil, until there is no smell of ether anymore at the other end. This works even better if
you put the small aquarium pump in a warm place (e.g. above a heating radiator) such that the air inlet takes warm air. I use the diethyl ether, also
because of its very strong smell, allowing you to know that really all ether is gone and the coil is clean.
If you don't have diethyl ether, then acetone alone will do the job as well, but it takes longer to dry and its odour is weaker, so it is more
difficult to dermine when really all acetone is gone.
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