Molecular interaction mechanism in the separation of a binary azeotropic system by extractive distillation with ionic liquid

Ionic liquids (ILs) have shown excellent performance in the separation of binary azeotropes through extractive distillation [1]. But the role of the ionic liquid in azeotropic system is not well understood. In this paper, COSMO-RS model was applied to screen an appropriate IL to separate the binary azeotrope of ethyl acetate (EA) and ethanol and 1-octyl-3-methylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([OMIM][BF4]) was selected. The Quantum Mechanics (QM) …