Asynt has supplied a range of Drysyn heating blocks to Newcastle University's Outreach Laboratory, which aims to help inspire young people's interest in chemistry.
The heating blocks will help familiarise secondary school pupils with the procedures and equipment they will encounter in a modern chemistry laboratory.
Dr Peter Hoare, the university's chemistry outreach officer, said: 'For many secondary schools, a well equipped laboratory is prohibitively expensive and our Outreach laboratory will allow many more pupils to conduct interesting and inspiring experiments.
'Even basic laboratory heating devices such as hotplate stirrers and heating mantles may not be available in many schools, and using the Drysyn units we can perform some of the key processes in synthetic chemistry such as distillation or refluxing.
'The Drysyn approach is economical and flexible - rather than use a dedicated heating mantle to heat a round-bottomed flask, we can use a Drysyn insert on a standard hotplate and then use the same hotplate to heat a flat-bottomed beaker - and, of course, it is safer than oil baths.
'We have a range of Drysyn units covering vessels from 50ml to two litres,' he added.
Drysyn units are available to handle volumes from 1ml to five litres.
The latest Drysyn versions are said to be 25 per cent faster than oil baths and can heat a reaction flask to 300C, while a standard laboratory chiller supplies the cooling (down to -30C) for the Drysyn Cool.
