Synthesis, spectroscopic characterization and DFT calculations of β-O-4 type lignin model compounds

β-O-4 type lignin model compounds with the title of Erythro-2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-(3,4,5-trimethoxyphenyl)-1,3-propanediol and Erythro-2-(2-methoxyphenoxy)-1-(4-Hydroxy-3,5-dimethoxyphenyl)-1,3-propanediol were synthesised and some modifications and improvements on them were introduced. These compounds were characterized by IR, Mass and NMR spectroscopy. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations were performed for the title compounds using the standard 6-31G(*) basis set. IR, (13)C and (1)H NMR of the title compounds were calculated at the DFT-B3LYP level of theory using the 6-31G(*) basis set. In this work comparison between the experimental and the theoretical results indicates that the DFT-B3LYP method is able to provide satisfactory results for predicting the properties of the considered compounds.