Soxhlet Extractor

---

How It Works

A Soxhlet extractor is used to remove a material from a solid. It is useful when removing materials that do not dissolve well in any solvent.

The Soxhlet extractor applies the solvent repeatedly to the solid until enough of the material dissolves.

The Soxhlet Extractor has three main sections:
A flask, an extraction chamber, and a condenser.

In this  extraction process, the solvent inside the boiling flask is evaporated and re-condensed in the distillation column above. It then falls down onto the solid material requiring extraction.

The chamber containing the solid material is connected to the boiling flask below, by a syphoning mechanism which allows the chamber to fill to a point, at which it will empty its contents and start to fill again and the extracted compounds will accumulate in the boiling flask.

---

Equipment Needed