Monday, 15 July 2013

Buchner Funnel: making filtration easier

Named after the industrial chemist Ernst Buchner, a Buchner funnel is a piece of laboratory equipment that is used for filtration or separation of liquid from solid. Traditionally the Buchner funnel was made out of porcelain but now the funnels made of glass materials have become quite common. The vacuum sucks the air out of the Buchner flask and when the mixture of solid and liquid is poured into the container, the liquid is sucked through the sintered disc whereas the solid fails to pass through the filter disc. Usually the Buchner funnel is used in the organic chemistry experiments where the unwanted solid needs to be removed from the liquid.
One of the best advantages of using Buchner funnel is that due to the suction, the re-crystallized material gets dried automatically and you do not need to dry it separately. Buchner funnel is often used as a combination of Buchner ring, sinter seals and Buchner flask. The seal needs to be vacuum tight else there occurs problems in suction.

Though the task preformed by the Buchner funnel looks quite simple yet there is no other device in the laboratory that can replace the role of Buchner funnel. Usually the set of Buchner funnel comes in a kit and you need to set it up in the laboratory. But setting up of Buchner funnel is not at all difficult. Even if you have little experience with it, you can do it without anyone’s guidance and support.

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