Comparison of two thermochemolytic methods for the analysis of lignin in decomposing gymnosperm wood: the CuO oxidation method and the method of thermochemolysis with tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)

Comparison of the new TMAH thermochemolysis procedure with the traditional CuO oxidation procedure for lignin characterization in gymnosperm wood and soil formed from degraded gymnosperm wood indicates that an excellent agreement exists between the two methods, especially with regard to the yield of lignin monomers. Moreover, the TMAH procedure appears to be more sensitive for calculation of benzenecarboxylic acid/benzaldehyde (Ad/Al) ratios, displaying a larger dynamic range than that observed by CuO oxidation. If one considers the simplicity with which the TMAH procedure is carried out, this technique is much more suited to routine analyses of large numbers of samples.