Closed-loop recycling of rare liquid samples for gas-phase experiments

TL;DR

This paper introduces a closed-loop recycling system for rare liquid samples in gas-phase experiments, significantly reducing sample waste and increasing efficiency for expensive molecules like chiral and isotopically labeled species.

Contribution

The authors developed a novel closed-loop recycling system for low vapor pressure molecules, achieving over 95% efficiency per cycle, enhancing resource conservation in molecular physics experiments.

Findings

Recycling efficiency exceeds 95% per cycle.

System reduces waste of expensive and rare molecules.

Simple valve and cold trap operation facilitate reuse.

Abstract

Many samples of current interest in molecular physics and physical chemistry exist in the liquid phase and are vaporized for the use in gas cells, diffuse gas targets or molecular gas jets. For some of these techniques the large sample consumption is a limiting factor. When rare, expensive molecules, such as chiral molecules or species with isotopic labels are used, wasting them in the exhaust line of the pumps is a quite expensive and inefficient approach. Therefore, we developed a closed-loop recycling system for molecules with vapor pressures below atmospheric pressure. Once filled, only a few valves have to be opened or closed and a cold trap must be moved. The recycling efficiency per turn exceeds 95 %.