Phenolic lignin degradation products

Earlier research involving reaction conditions that led to only cyclohexyl derivatives has been followed by the ability to isolate and characterize relatively high yields of phenolic lignin degradation products under much milder conditions. This gives direct supporting evidence for the essentially aromatic nature of lignin. 

The influence of the solvent system employed on the extent of aromatic adsorption has been studied by a number of authors. Thus, it has been demonstrated that chloroform negates the effects of aromatic adsorption on LH-20 [188, 189] and Carnegie [190] was able to determine the molecular weights or aromatic amino acids on G-25 in phenol-acetic acid-water (1 1 1 w/v/v). Similarly, dioxane-water (1 1) greatly diminishes or eliminates the adsorption of lignin degradation products to G-25 and LH-20 [191]. 

All currently important industrial organic chemicals such as hydrocarbons, alcohols, polyols, ketones, acids, and phenol derivatives can be obtained by chemical processing of wood [106]. Plastics and synthetic fibres produced could be synthesized using the above chemicals from plant components. In order to develop both current and new polymers, eombining petrochemistry with wood chemistry has been considered. In this section, novel polymers synthesized using lignin degradation products are described [107, 108]. 

This study has again demonstrated the effectiveness of alkaline hydrolysis as a prime method of lignin degradation to readily identifiable phenolic products. 

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