Nitration of lignin isolated from spruce wood by mechanical grinding

Summary 1. The nitration of spruce lignin obtained by mechanical grinding has been carried out with nitric acid in an anhydrous medium under heterogeneous and homogeneous conditions. Fractionation of the nitrolignin has been carried out and the elementary and functional composition of the fractions has been determined; the mean semi-empirical formulas of the C₉ structures have been calculated for both fractions. It has been shown that, depending on the nitration conditions, from one to two nitro groups enter the C₆-C₃ structural element of nitrolignin and, with an excess of HNO₃, nitrate groups as well.The fall in the content of OCH₃ groups corresponds to the content of phenolic hydroxyl groups in the initial MGL and can be explained by the demethylation of the guaiacyl structures of the lignin on nitration.Khimiya Prirodnykh Soedinenii, Vol. 2, No. 1, pp. 58–65, 1966