The barks of two wood species, sugar maple (SM) and red oak (RO), were investigated to characterize their chemical composition and isolate the lignins they contain, representing relatively underexplored and underutilized polymers. Characterizing these two barks involved assessing extractive components, Klason and acid-soluble lignin, ash content, and sugars. It was observed that RO bark had a higher concentration of extractive substances and a lower Klason lignin content compared to SM bark. The Klason lignin content in the barks of the SM and RO bark was measured at 35.0% and 26.4%, respectively, higher than values reported for corresponding to wood of the same species, 21.8% and 22.2%, respectively, for RO and SM. Lignin isolation from bark was achieved by utilizing Organosolv catalytic and acid dioxane processes. Notably, the Organosolv process yielded lignins of considerably higher purity. The structural analysis of the bark lignins was peformed by combination of spectroscopic methods: FTIR,13P NMR, and solid-state NMR. Compared to dioxane lignins, a higher concentration of OH bound to syringyl and guayacyl units were found in Organosolv lignins. In contrast, aliphatic OH units are more important in dioxane lignins than in Organosolv lignins. Furthermore, sugar analysis was conducted via HPLC, thermal analysis was conducted through DSC and TGA, and ash composition identification was done using ICP-OES. Notably, higher Mw and Mn values are determined by GPC for dioxane lignins than for Organosolv lignins.
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