Elucidating Structural Characteristics of Biomass using Solution-State 2 D NMR with a Mixture of Deuterated Dimethylsulfoxide and Hexamethylphosphoramide.

Recent developments of NMR methods for characterization of lignocellulosic biomass allow improved understanding of plant cell-wall structures with minimal deconstruction and modification of biomass. This study introduces a new NMR solvent system composed of dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO-d6 ) and hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA-d18 ). HMPA as a co-solvent enhanced swelling and mobility of the biomass samples; thereby it allowed enhancing signals of NMR spectra. The structural information of biomass was successfully analyzed by the proposed NMR solvent system (DMSO-d6 /HMPA-d18 ; 4:1, v/v) with different biomass. The proposed bi-solvent system does not require derivatization or isolation of biomass, facilitating a facile sample preparation and involving with no signals overlapping with biomass peaks. It also allows analyzing biomass with a room-temperature NMR probe instead of cryo-probes, which are traditionally used for enhancing signal intensities.