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Journal of Wood Science

Official Journal of the Japan Wood Research Society

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Analysis of progress of oxidation reaction during oxygen-alkali treatment of lignin I: method and its application to lignin oxidation

Journal of Wood Science volume 46, pages 32–39 (2000)Cite this article

Abstract

A new method is applied to evaluate the progress of the oxidation reaction of lignin during oxygen-alkali treatment. This method employs the difference in permanganate consumption of the sample before and after the oxygen-alkali treatment as an indication for the lignin oxidation. When kraft lignin and residual lignin isolated from unbleached softwood kraft pulp were subjected to oxygen-alkali treatment up to 6000min, the progress of the oxidation expressed by this method was separated into clearly distinguished three phases. During the first and second phases, the progress of oxidation was well correlated to the loss of methoxyl group and to the decrease in the yield of nitrobenzene oxidation products. The addition of Mn+ to the oxygen-alkali treatment depressed oxidation during the second phase partly and that during the third phase almost completely. Calculations based on the change in the permanganate consumption revealed that the oxidation during the first phase corresponded to 4.2 electrons abstracted from one lignin structural unit on average. The oxidation process by oxygen-alkali treatment was hypothetically attributed to the direct reaction between molecular oxygen and the phenolic unit of lignin, which mainly took place during the first phase, and to the autooxidation-type oxidation during the second and third phases.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Wood Chemistry Laboratory, Department of Biomaterial Sciences, Graduate School of Agricultural and Life Sciences, The University of Tokyo, 1-1-1 Yayoi, Bunkyo-ku, 113-8657, Tokyo, Japan

    Guolin Tong, Tomoya Yokoyama, Yuji Matsumoto & Gyosuke Meshitsuka

Authors
  1. Guolin Tong
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  2. Tomoya Yokoyama
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  3. Yuji Matsumoto
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  4. Gyosuke Meshitsuka
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Correspondence to Gyosuke Meshitsuka.

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Tong, G., Yokoyama, T., Matsumoto, Y. et al. Analysis of progress of oxidation reaction during oxygen-alkali treatment of lignin I: method and its application to lignin oxidation. J Wood Sci 46, 32–39 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00779550

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00779550

Key words

  • Lignin
  • Oxygen-alkali treatment
  • Permanganate consumption
  • Oxidation
  • Electron