Re: Dry Distillation of Acetate Salts

[Illen A. Cluf]

Hi Illen,

I use specifically a Cast Iron Top Hot Plate, Remote control RC1900 model I bought for about $280 from Lab Depot Inc. They have a website by the same name where you can find this hotplate. It reaches 480°C maximum, and because it's cast iron you can use it with glass or metal vessels. You are probably thinking, "But you said 500°C?" and yes this is true, I did say that. Keep in mind however, the sandbath will absorb more heat.

Rae

Hi Rae,

Merry Christmas!

That indeed seems to be a sophisticated hotplate. However, if the maximum temperature of the hotplate is 480°C I stil don't see how, even with a sandbath (which only absorbs the given heat), the temperature could exceed this amount. Do you know how much the temperature of this hotplate fluctuates when maintaining the temperature?

Thanks,
Illen

[theFool]

There are cheap hot plates (used usually for coffee making) which have two or three "scales" and they keep the temp steady, there is no on-off because they don't have thermostat. If you connect a 1000W lighting dimmer you can control the temp precisely and fairly cheaply.

[raedotted]

Hi Rae,

Merry Christmas!

That indeed seems to be a sophisticated hotplate. However, if the maximum temperature of the hotplate is 480°C I stil don't see how, even with a sandbath (which only absorbs the given heat), the temperature could exceed this amount. Do you know how much the temperature of this hotplate fluctuates when maintaining the temperature?

Thanks,
Illen

Hi Illen,

Well you are correct actually. The temperature doesn't exceed 485°C in the sandbath. The temp fluctuates +5/-5°C. However, the acetate doesn't have to absolutely reach 500°C to distill over in most cases. Sometimes it will require heats up to 700°C, however I haven't encountered that problem yet.

Rae

[Illen A. Cluf]

There are cheap hot plates (used usually for coffee making) which have two or three "scales" and they keep the temp steady, there is no on-off because they don't have thermostat. If you connect a 1000W lighting dimmer you can control the temp precisely and fairly cheaply.

Thank you "theFool". I have a couple of inexpensive hotplates, and I can try that solution.

Illen

[Illen A. Cluf]

Well you are correct actually. The temperature doesn't exceed 485°C in the sandbath. The temp fluctuates +5/-5°C. However, the acetate doesn't have to absolutely reach 500°C to distill over in most cases. Sometimes it will require heats up to 700°C, however I haven't encountered that problem yet.

The extra few degrees would help, unless the temperature can remain fairly constant. I did a lead acetate distillation with a friend, and just as the distillate was starting to come over (about 480 C) the hotplate would shut off and the temperature would drop to about 425 C before kicking in again. It took a long time to receive any signficiant amount of the distillate. If we could have kept the temperature steady at about 490 C, I think it would have been much more productive. We did wrap the flask with insulating wool so that the temperature wouldn't drop too much between the hotplate shut-offs, and that did help somewhat.

Illen

[Jerry]

I did a lead acetate distillation with a friend, and just as the distillate was starting to come over.......

Could you please tell me what treatise you are working from so I can better understand this discussion?

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