Some compounds have very high boiling points. To boil such compounds, it is often better to lower the pressure at which such compounds are boiled instead of increasing the temperature. Once the pressure is lowered to the vapor pressure of the compound (at the given temperature), boiling and the rest of the distillation process can commence. This technique is referred to as vacuum distillation and it is commonly found in the laboratory in the form of the rotary evaporator.

This technique is also very useful for compounds which boil beyond their decomposition temperature at atmospheric pressure and which would therefore be decomposed by any attempt to boil them under atmospheric pressure.

一些化合物具有很高的沸点。要使这类化合物沸腾，最好是降低化合物沸腾时的压力而不是提高温度。一但压力降低到化合物的蒸汽压（在一定的温度下），化合物就开始沸腾，蒸馏作用就可进行。这项技术被称为真空蒸馏，且以真空汽化器的形式常见于实验室。

这项技术对于大气压下沸点超过其分解温度的化合物是很有用的，在大气压下让这类化合物沸腾的尝试，都会使其分解