I have bought myself a hotplate and magnetic stirrer. But I want to ask when carrying out simple extractions with volatile and flammable substances, when I wish to apply heat, is it still best to use a hot water bath or can I now heat the flasks directly? I would imagine as I can now carefully control temperature I should now be allowed to heat the flask directly but I thought I better ask first just to be on the safe side!

Many thanks!

Can you link us to the unit you got?

You should be fine heating directly provided you use lab (borosilicate) glass. You do need to understand that heatig solvents will increase the amount of vapor in the air, and that is undesirable.

Either way, about the only time you need to heat any solvent is when you dissolve dmt into heptane.

I use quartz (you gave me some advice last year) so I guess it should be fine on 50-60 degrees. I don’t mean heat solvents directly as in heating a big jug of naphtha.

I just mean when you want to heat things up to help non polar molecules migrate better from polar solution into the non-polar solvent. The amount of solvent/naphtha would be relatively miniscule and the intention would not be to evaporate any. Heating/stirring just for agitation purposes. I am not so worried about the glass breaking or anything like that I was just wondering if this is somehow less safe or advisable than a simple hot water bath? Sparks and things like that, who knows! Just thought I'd make sure.

Heres a link for ya dude!

http://www.aliexpress.co...g-plate/1403018127.html#!

Flammable solvents always give off some amount of vapor, especially so when heated. A nearby source of sparks is dangerous when flammable vapors are around. A properly designed and built laboratory hotplate is not a source of sparks, so it is a lot safer than kitchen-grade heaters. The description on the link you gave suggests that the hotplate should not spark, so it would be safe to use.

Looks like it'll be fine to use. Just be mindful about where you use it: not next to a stove with a pilot light. If heating anything less than 100C, like dcm or acetone I'd use a hot water bath on the hotplate as a heat buffer.

Happy extracting, and congrats on the new gear

Thanks! I think I will use it directly. I also use a conical flask which seems to keep the fumes within the reaction vessel quite nicely unlike say a normal beaker.

Magnetic stirers wonderful!

But I neednt have worried all I have to do is heat the solution up to about sixty degrees turn off the heat and leave it stiring!

Dont really know why I didnt think of that!