During my soxhlet extraction experiments, the siphoning process abruptly stopped working. On reporting the same to my instructor, she just took aluminium foil and covered the whole soxhlet extraction chamber and the process started normally. On inquiring what was the scientific concept behind this restarting procedure, she just said...'it has worked for me in years'. As a scientist, I wish to know the underlying concept, any help?
Probably your lab is enough cold to return your solvent vapor back to boiling flask before it reachs to your condenser. So when using aluminium foil you keep your extraction chamber hot and your solvent vapor doesnt condansates anywhere else than your condenser.
Thanks Süleyman Yur for the answer, I think this could be a possibility.
Sometimes, a scientist wraps the bypass sidearm of the Soxhlet extractor, in particular, with aluminum foil when a relatively slightly volatile solvent is used because the solvent may condense inside it before reaching the condenser.
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