Chemical structural studies of natural lignin by dipolar dephasing solid-state 13C nuclear magnetic resonance

Two natural lignins, one from a gymnosperm wood the other from angiosperm wood, were examined by conventional solid-state and dipolar dephasing ¹³C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques. The results obtained from both techniques show that the structure of natural lignins is consistent with models of softwood and hardwood lignin. The dipolar dephasing NMR data provide a measure of the degree of substitution on aromatic rings which is consistent with the models.