Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Is there any easy way to evaporate organic solvents like chloroform to make liposomes? So far people recommend the use of a nitrogen stream, but we aren't really sure how to obtain a nitrogen stream...

Here are a couple articles that discuss evaporation of organic solvents.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10080118
http://www.springerlink.com/content/d0q6w32347865g25/

Michael

I do research in an organic chemistry lab, and chloroform is a pretty heavy solvent. When we need to evaporate chloroform, we use either a rotoevaporator, or we blow a flow of argon over the solvent. If you don't have access to that, you could also us a blowdryer on the lowest setting, held a substantial distance away just allowing the warm air to slowly convect. Hope that helps!

By the way, my guess is that the easiest way to get a nitrogen stream is to buy a bottle of compressed nitrogen from your local medical gas supply company and use that. You'd probably have to rent a regulator (set of control valves) to use along with it.

Don't forget to make sure you have adequate ventilation! Chloroform vapor inhalation isn't good for you, obviously.

Best,

Will