DISTILLATION OF WATER – N-METHYLIMIDAZOLE SYSTEM

 Alenka Štefanič Petek, Lucija Bradeško
Faculty of Chemistry and Chemical Technology, University of Ljubljana, Aškerčeva 5, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia
 
Ljudmila Fele Žilnik
National Institute of Chemistry, Hajdrihova 19, SI-1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Silvo Zupančič
KRKA Pharmaceutical and Chemical Works, Novo mesto, Slovenia
 

ABSTRACT

N-Methylimidazole is used in the synthesis of various organic materials as a catalyst and in some cases as a solvent. In the industrial processes where the large quantities of N?methylimidazole are used the need for the regeneration and recycling is obvious because of its high price and ecological requirements.
In this work a method for solvent recovery from water - N-methylimidazole system is proposed. For this purpose the vapour-liquid equilibrium diagram was determined and refractometry was used as a convenient physico-chemical method for the determination of water content in the mixture