Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels, biomaterials, and bio-specialty chemicals. However, efficient utilization of biomass has been limited by our poor understanding of its molecular structure. Here, we report a dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced solid-state (SS)NMR study of the molecular structure of biomass, both pre- and post-catalytic depolymerization of lignin (CDL). This technique enables the measurement of 2D homonuclear <sup>13</sup>C-<sup>13</sup>C correlation SSNMR spectra under natural abundance, yielding, for the first time, an atomic-level picture of the structure of raw and catalytically treated biomass samples. We foresee that further such experiments could be used to determine structure-function relationships and facilitate the development of more efficient, and chemically-targeted, biomass-conversion technologies.

Atomic level structure characterization of biomass post Catalytic Depolymerization of Lignin (CDL) by dynamic nuclear polarization-enhanced solid state NMR

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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