Identifying the origin of lignins and monitoring their structural changes by means of FTIR-PCA and -SIMCA

Lignins from sugarcane bagasse and eucalyptus, isolated respectively from s oda and kraft liquors by precipitation with HCl or H2SO4, have been investi gated together with samples of lignins isolated after organosolv pulping. S ugarcane bagasse lignin precipitated by HCl underwent oxidation by O-2 in a queous NaOH. The reaction products, the oxidized lignin (reprecipitated wit h HCl) and the soluble products (isolated by evaporation) formed two other groups of samples. Fourier transform infra-red (FTIR) spectra of 49 of thes e lignins samples in KBr disks were recorded and analysed by principal comp onent analysis (PCA) and statistical isolinear multicomponent analysis (SIM CA). After normalization of the spectra by dividing the absorbance value at a certain wavenumber by the absorbance value at 1510 cm(-1), PCA analysis using 597 data points collected between 1950 and 800 cm(-1) showed that the first two principal components describe most of the total spectral varianc e. The plot of these two principal components allowed the lignins to be gro uped according to their isolation (kraft, alkaline pulping or organosolv), but no difference could be observed when the lignins were isolated from liq uor by precipitation with HCl or H2SO4. Furthermore, the method allows a ve ry good separation of the acetylated samples and can be used as a tool to r apidly identify the origin of lignin samples or to monitor their structural changes. (C) 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.