Determination of the proportions of the different lignin monomeric units in poplar

This project was conducted in collaboration with colleagues at the School of Chemical Engineering (Purdue). An analytical method based on fast pyrolysis performed in an atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) source of an ion trap mass spectrometer was developed and employed to successfully determine the proportions of the different types of lignin monomeric units in wild type poplar and genetically modified poplar. Compared to the most commonly used method, derivatization followed by reductive cleavage (DFRC), this new method is simple and fast, needs only a small amount of each sample, and only requires the use of three safe chemicals: methanol, water, and ammonium hydroxide.

Table 3. Monomer compositions of lignin derived from the wild type and six genetic variants of a poplar determined by the high-resolution fast pyrolysis/negative-mode atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) mass spectrometry (py/(-)APCI MS method^a) and by derivatization followed by reductive cleavage (DFRC).

Reference:

Xu, L.; Ma, X.; Murria, P.; Talpade, A.; Sheng, H.; Meilan, R.; Chapple, C.; Agrawal, R.; Delgass, W.N.; Ribeiro, F.H.; Kenttämaa, H.I. Fast Determination of the Lignin Monomer Compositions of Genetic Variants of Poplar via Fast Pyrolysis/Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization Mass Spectrometry, J. Am. Soc. Mass Spectrom. 2021, 32, 2546–2551.