This MedLibrary.org supplementary page on Büchner flask is provided directly from the open source Wikipedia as a service to our readers. Please see the note below on authorship of this content, as well as the Wikipedia usage guidelines. To search for other content from our encyclopedia supplement, please use the form below:
Related Sponsors
A Büchner flask, also known as a vacuum flask,1 filter flask, side-arm flask or Kitasato flask, is a thick-walled Erlenmeyer flask with a short glass tube and hose barb protruding about an inch from its neck. The short tube and hose barb effectively acts as an adapter over which the end of a thick-walled flexible hose (tubing) can be fitted to form a connection to the flask. The other end of the hose can be connected to source of vacuum such as an aspirator, vacuum pump, or house vacuum. Preferably this is done through a trap (see below), which is designed to prevent the sucking back of water from the aspirator into the Büchner flask.
The thick wall of the Büchner flask provides it the strength to withstand the pressure difference while holding a vacuum inside. It is primarily used together with a Büchner funnel fitted through a drilled rubber bung or an elastomer adapter at the neck on top of the flask for filtration of samples. The Büchner funnel holds the sample isolated from the suction by a layer of filter paper. During filtration, the filtrate enters and is held by the flask while the residue remains on the filter paper in the funnel.
The Büchner flask can also be used as a vacuum trap in a vacuum line to ensure that no fluids are carried over from the aspirator or vacuum pump (or other vacuum source) to the evacuated apparatus or vice versa.
It is commonly thought to be named after the Nobel Laureate, Eduard Buchner, but it is actually named after the industrial chemist Ernst Büchner. It is also known as a Kitasato flask, in honor of Shibasaburo Kitasato
See also
References and notes
- ^ The use of the term vacuum flask sometimes causes confusion with the Thermos flask
- Jensen, William B. (September 2006). "The Origins of the Hirsch and Büchner Vacuum Filtration Funnels" (PDF). Journal of Chemical Education 83 (9): 1283, http://jchemed.chem.wisc.edu/hs/Journal/Issues/2006/Sep/clicSubscriber/V83N09/p1283.pdf.
|
||||||||||||||||
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 25 August 2008, at 13:06.
Wikipedia Authorship and Review
Wikipedia content provided here is not reviewed directly by MedLibrary.org. Wikipedia content is authored by an open community of volunteers and is not produced by or in any way affiliated with MedLibrary.org.
Wikipedia Usage Guidelines
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article on "Büchner flask".
The URL for this specific entry is:
All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details). Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc.