What is a reflux divider?

A reflux divider system enables you to switch between refluxing and evaporation/distillation in a jacketed lab reactor.  It allows you to carry out an evaporation after your synthesis without having to change equipment.

A reflux divider head is a glass piece with a PTFE valve.  It is fitted in between the condenser and the reactor lid.  When the valve is closed, you reflux: vapour from the vessel travels up into the condenser and condensate flows back down into the vessel. When you open the valve, vapour travels up into condenser as before, but now condensate is run off to be collected in a separate receiver flask.

We offer reflux divider kits for our reaction systems, each containing the reflux divider head, a condenser, and fittings for the reflux divider head to connect to a receiver flask. (Items can also be purchased separately.)

You have the option of a standard reflux divider head (shown left), or one with a temperature probe port (shown right) together with a short Pt100 probe and adapter. The latter set-up enables you to measure the temperature of the vapour entering the condenser.  This Pt100 could be plugged into a Data Hub to be monitored by AVA software.