| Literature DB >> 30641616 |
Christopher S Lancefield1, Sandra Constant1, Peter de Peinder2, Pieter C A Bruijnincx1,3.
Abstract
Lignin is an attractive material for the production of renewable chemicals, materials and energy. However, utilization is hampered by its highly complex and variable chemical structure, which requires an extensive suite of analytical instruments to characterize. Here, we demonstrate that straightforward attenuated total reflection (ATR)-FTIR analysis combined with principle component analysis (PCA) and partial least squares (PLS) modelling can provide remarkable insight into the structure of technical lignins, giving quantitative results that are comparable to standard gel-permeation chromatography (GPC) and 2D heteronuclear single quantum coherence (HSQC) NMR methods. First, a calibration set of 54 different technical (fractionated) lignin samples, covering kraft, soda and organosolv processes, were prepared and analyzed using traditional GPC and NMR methods, as well as by readily accessible ATR-FTIR spectroscopy. PLS models correlating the ATR-FTIR spectra of the broad set of lignins with GPC and NMR measurements were found to have excellent coefficients of determination (R2 Cal.>0.85) for molecular weight (Mn , Mw ) and inter-unit abundances (β-O-4, β-5 and β-β), with low relative errors (6.2-14 %) as estimated from cross-validation results. PLS analysis of a second set of 28 samples containing exclusively (fractionated) kraft lignins showed further improved prediction ability, with relative errors of 3.8-13 %, and the resulting model could predict the structural characteristics of an independent validation set of lignins with good accuracy. The results highlight the potential utility of this methodology for streamlining and expediting the often complex and time consuming technical lignin characterization process.Entities:
Keywords: FTIR spectroscopy; biomass; chemometrics; lignin; partial least squares modelling
Year: 2019 PMID: 30641616 PMCID: PMC6563701 DOI: 10.1002/cssc.201802809
Source DB: PubMed Journal: ChemSusChem ISSN: 1864-5631 Impact factor: 8.928
Figure 1ATR‐FTIR spectra of (a) Indulin AT kraft (softwood); (b) Alcell organosolv (hardwood) and (c) P1000 soda (herbaceous) lignin.
Figure 2Principal component analysis plot of the 54 lignin samples used in this study. The ATR‐FTIR spectra were pre‐processed by applying baseline correction, 1st derivative transformation, normalization and mean centering. Shading shows how the lignins are grouped according to their different botanical origins. The colored ellipses are intended for illustrative purposes only.
Results of PLS regression between molecular weight and inter‐unit abundances as determined by GPC and 2D HSQC NMR spectroscopy, respectively, for the 54 lignin samples and their ATR‐FTIR using 1st derivative pre‐processing.
| Entry | Unit | Range | Num. LV[a] | Variance captured [%] | RMSEC[b] | RMSECV | RE[c] [%] |
|
| |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X (FTIR) | Y (Cal.) | |||||||||
| 1 |
| 4626 | 7 | 94 | 94 | 260 | 400 | 8.7 | 0.94 | 0.85 |
| 2 | log( | 0.95 | 7 | 94 | 98 | 0.034 | 0.059 | 6.2 | 0.98 | 0.94 |
| 3 |
| 29 984 | 10 | 96 | 92 | 1500 | 3000 | 10 | 0.92 | 0.70 |
| 4 | log( | 1.7 | 6 | 93 | 94 | 0.091 | 0.13 | 7.6 | 0.94 | 0.88 |
| 5 |
| 5.03 | 5 | 89 | 72 | 0.69 | 1.0 | 20 | 0.72 | 0.44 |
| 6 | β‐ | 34 | 4 | 85 | 94 | 1.8 | 2.8 | 8.2 | 0.94 | 0.85 |
| 7 | β‐5 | 10 | 4 | 86 | 88 | 0.74 | 1.1 | 11 | 0.88 | 0.75 |
| 8 | β‐β | 3.9 | 5 | 90 | 85 | 0.33 | 0.53 | 14 | 0.85 | 0.61 |
[a] Num. LV=number of latent variables. [b] RMSEC=root mean squared error of calibration. [c] RE=RMSECV/range. [d] Venetian blinds with 10 splits and 1 sample per split; values reported to 2 significant figures; see Figure S2 for the associated regression vectors.
Results of PLS regression between molecular weight and inter‐unit abundances determined by GPC and 2D HSQC NMR spectroscopy for the 28 kraft lignin samples and their ATR‐FTIR spectra using 1st derivative pre‐processing.[a]
| Entry | Unit | Range | Num. LVs | Calibration (28 samples) | Validation (2×7 samples) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RMSEC | RMSECV | RE [%] |
|
| RMSEP |
| ||||
| 1 |
| 4570 | 6 | 210 | 410 | 9.0 | 0.97 | 0.89 | 810 (510)[c] | 0.87 (0.98)[c] |
| 2 | log( | 0.91 | 5 | 0.025 | 0.046 | 5.0 | 0.99 | 0.97 | 0.087 (0.050)[c] | 0.96 (0.99)[c] |
| 3 |
| 29 984 | 6 | 1430 | 3100 | 10 | 0.96 | 0.81 | 3400 | 0.89 |
| 4 | log( | 1.7 | 6 | 0.039 | 0.097 | 5.8 | 0.99 | 0.95 | 0.094 | 0.98 |
| 5 |
| 4.9 | 6 | 0.22 | 0.51 | 10 | 0.97 | 0.84 | 0.72 | 0.98 |
| 6 | β‐ | 12 | 6 | 0.25 | 0.46 | 3.8 | 1.00 | 0.99 | 0.56 | 0.98 |
| 7 | β‐5 | 3.8 | 6 | 0.095 | 0.18 | 4.7 | 0.99 | 0.98 | 0.27 | 0.97 |
| 8 | β‐β | 1.8 | 3 | 0.13 | 0.19 | 10 | 0.94 | 0.87 | 0.15 | 0.94 |
| 9 | SB5 | 8.0 | 3 | 0.79 | 1.0 | 13 | 0.87 | 0.79 | 1.2 | 0.90 |
| 10 | SB1 | 7.9 | 5 | 0.26 | 0.48 | 6.1 | 0.98 | 0.94 | 0.39 | 0.94 |
[a] Values reported to 2 significant figures; see Figure S3 for the regression vectors associated with these models. [b] Pred.=predicted. [c] The relatively large RMSECV/RMSEP ratio can indicate overfitting. In this case it results from an outlier sample in the M n measurements due to the poor solubility of the acetone/MeOH fraction in the GPC solvent. Exclusion of this data results in a better prediction (shown in brackets).
Figure 3Scatterplots of measured versus predicted lignin properties based on PLS modelling. Inter‐unit abundances are measured and predicted on a per 100Ar basis.
Results measured by GPC and HSQC NMR spectroscopy and predicted by the PLS model for the validation set of kraft lignins. Predicted values are an average of two ATR‐FTIR measurements.[a]
| Property | EtOAc/MeOH | Acetone/MeOH | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 % | 5 % | 10 % | 20 % | 30 % | 40 % | 50 % | ||
|
| measured | 710 | 1100 | 1400 | 2000 | 2500 | 2700 | 2400[c] |
|
| 690 | 1100 | 1600 | 2200 | 2800 | 3300 | 3700 | |
|
| measured | 1100 | 1900 | 2700 | 4400 | 8100 | 11 000 | 14 000[c] |
|
| 950 | 1600 | 2500 | 4300 | 7100 | 11 000 | 24 000 | |
|
| measured | 1.6 | 1.7 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 3.3 | 4.0 | 6.03[c] |
|
| 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.2 | 5.6 | |
| β‐ | measured | 1.5 | 3.3 | 5.5 | 8.5 | 9.6 | 13 | 12 |
|
| 1.2 | 3.7 | 6.0 | 8.3 | 10 | 12 | 12 | |
| β‐5 | measured | 0.7 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 3.0 | 3.5 | 4.2 | 3.6 |
|
| 0.5 | 1.5 | 2.3 | 3.1 | 3.8 | 4.0 | 4.1 | |
| β‐β | measured | 1.1 | 1.5 | 1.9 | 2.1 | 2.3 | 2.8 | 2.4 |
|
| 1.3 | 1.6 | 1.9 | 2.2 | 2.4 | 2.6 | 2.6 | |
| SB5 | measured | 9.4 | 9.7 | 7.9 | 4.5 | 5.1 | 4.1 | 3.2 |
|
| 10 | 8.4 | 6.6 | 5.0 | 3.7 | 2.8 | 1.8 | |
| SB1 | measured | 4.6 | 2.0 | 1.1 | 0.9 | 0.4 | 0.5 | 0.3 |
|
| 4.4 | 2.5 | 1.7 | 1.2 | 0.8 | 0.5 | 0.05 | |
[a] Values >1 reported to 2 significant figures, <1 reported to 1 significant figure. [b] Calculated from log[X]‐predicted values; see Table S6 for raw values. [c] Sample not fully soluble in THF after acetylation and values most likely underestimated with respect to the whole sample.