Leon S. Ciereszko
The University of
I
ok~ohomo Norman
I
A Versatile ~ontinuousPercolator-Extractor
A n apparatus which may be used either for the continuous percolation of solids or for the continuous extraction of liquids has been developed. It consists of an extractor body (B), fitted with standard taper joints a t top and bottom to hold condenser and boiling flask, and two interchangeable inserts, (F) and (D). The extractor body consists of a cylindrical vessel, made from a suitable bottle or large diameter tubing. It carries the vapor tnbe (T) equipped with standard taper joint. The tnbe carries vapor from the boiler flask into the space above the material to be a extracted. To prevent condensed solvent from returning directly to the boiler, the vapor tube is fitted either with a long funnel (F) with sintered glass distributor (S) reaching to the bottom of Presented at the 18th Southwest Regional Meeting, American Chemical Society, Dallas, December 7, 1962. The author wishes to thank Robert Lamenee and Norman Alexandre for construction of several examples of the apparatus, Mrs. Annice Ellis for making the drawings, the PRF of the ACS, and the Faculty Research Fund.
252
/ Journal of Chemicol Education
the extractor body (for liquid-liquid extraction with light solvent), or with a long piece of tubing (D) with a perforated cap that can be easily slipped over the vapor tube (for liquid-liquid extraction with heavy immiscible solvent, or for continuous percolationof solids). For the extraction of solids, a twist of glass wool is pushed into the annular space around at the bottom of the (B); D is firmly placed on the glass wool, and the solid material is poured into (B) through the wide joint at top. The funnel need not be as elaborate as shown in the diagram. It can he supported by rings which slip over (T). (F) and (D) must be long enough to permit solvent to overflow readily through (T) into the boiling flask. The extractor body, made from large glass tubing, from 4-1 solution bottles, and from 9-1 serum bottles, has been used for the extraction of quantities of solutions ranging from 0.5-6 1, and for the extraction of solids in quantities as large as 4.5 kg. The vertical in-line design of the apparatus permits mounting of all components on a single support rod. We support the heavy extractor body between two rings covered with rubber tubing or cork supports. The extractor can be used for varying amounts of material if the bottom of the extractor is provided with a socket joint into which vapor tubes of different lengths may be fitted. This extractor requires no thimble to hold the solids as does the Soxhlet type extractor. The volume of solvent in the boiler flask does not fluctuate widely during the extraction as it does in the siphoning extractors. We have used 1-1 boiler flasks, even when extracting 4 kg of material, so that we get concentrated extracts of the desired products.
(n
