What is a vacuum oven?
Vacuum ovens are chambers where 2 parameters are controlled: temperature and pressure. Vacuum ovens are typically used to dry samples at lower temperatures. By decreasing the pressure (creating a vacuum), the evaporation temperature of water and other liquids also decreases. For example, the boiling point of water at 50 mbar is only 33°C.
When your samples are temperature sensitive, a vacuum oven can be used to dry samples at lower temperatures. A typical example are samples that are biologically active where you want to dry at for example 30°C.
To reduce the pressure, a vacuum pump is used. When you are in vacuum, there is very little heat transfer via convection. That’s why the mean heat transfer method in a vacuum oven by conduction using thermoshelfves.
