Distillation of water-N-methylimidazole system

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 wher e the large quantities of N-methylimidazole are used the need for the regen eration and recycling is obvious because of its high price and ecological r equirements. In this work a method for solvent recovery from water - N-methylimidazole s ystem is proposed. For this purpose the vapour-liquid equilibrium diagram w as determined and refractometry was used as a convenient physico-chemical m ethod for the determination of water content in the mixture.