Structure of lignin. --.

Numerous researches during the past hundred years have been carried out to determine the structure of the lignin materials found in nearly all plants. It is well known that these substances play an important role in plant life and plant products. During this period the development of processes for the isolation of cellulose from different trees and grasses has led to the simultaneous production of huge quantities of lignin substances, the world production running into many millions of pounds. The utilization in industry of this lignin component of the plant has heretofore met with only slight success. The reason for this lack of application must be attributed to lack of information concerning its chemical structure. Previous experimental work on lignin has led to a great variety of speculations concerning its composition as well as to numerous methods for extracting it from plant materials. The work presented in this thesis gives new information concerning the structure of lignin materials obtained from spruce wood by ethanolysis. [...