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Melting Point
Melting Point
The solid sample is contained within specialised tubes called capillary tubes designed for melting point determination. Once placed in the heating block the capillary tubes are illuminated by bright LED lights, in order to view the melting of the substance taking place within the tube. Electricity is supplied to the apparatus at approx. 120 230 volts, this electricity heats the micro furnace/heating block which then melts the sample.
For the melt cycle to occur the apparatus first heats up to the pre-programmed plateau temperature (max temp) at a desired rate (slope) before stabilising at the plateau temperature for 120 seconds. An alarm/beep indicates that the apparatus is ready to start to heat the sample at the pre-programmed rate (e.g. 0.5 - 10C/min). Once the sample has melted and the cycle stopped, the apparatus automatically cools to the ambient temperature. Temperature accuracy of approx.
+/- 0.5 @ 50C +/- 1 @ 100C
A capillary tube is then used to scoop a small amount of the solid sample into the tube. The sample should cover approx. 1cm of the bottom of the capillary tube. The capillary tube can be gently tapped against the work surface to ensure the sample is at the bottom of the tube. The sample is now ready to be placed into the apparatus for melting point determination.
The melting process must be observed by the naked eye through the lens in order to record the MP range. The temperature at which the first drop of liquid appears is noted and then when all of the solid has melted i.e. the substance is now in its liquid state, the temperature is noted again. Example paracetamol has a MP range of 168 - 172C. It is recommended that samples are analysed in triplicate for accuracy.
Melting point is the temperature at which at substance changes from a solid to a liquid state.
Melting point range temp solid starts to melt to the temp where liquid is formed.
Electricity is used to heat the micro furnace/heating block, which melts the solid sample.