Related Experiment Video
Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Preparation of Fungal and Plant Materials for Structural Elucidation Using Dynamic Nuclear Polarization Solid-State NMR
Published on: February 12, 2019
Atomic-Level Structure Characterization of Biomass Pre- and Post-Lignin Treatment by Dynamic Nuclear
Frédéric A Perras1, Hao Luo2, Ximing Zhang3
1Ames Laboratory, U.S. Department of Energy , Ames, Iowa 50011, United States.
Abstract:
Lignocellulosic biomass is a promising sustainable feedstock for the production of biofuels, biomaterials, and biospecialty chemicals. However, efficient utilization of biomass has been limited by our poor understanding of its molecular structure. Here, we report a dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP)-enhanced solid-state (SS)NMR study of the molecular structure of biomass, both pre- and postcatalytic treatment. This technique enables the measurement of 2D homonuclear 13C-13C correlation SSNMR spectra under natural abundance, yielding, for the first time, an atomic-level picture of the structure of raw and catalytically treated biomass samples. We foresee that further such experiments could be used to determine structure-function relationships and facilitate the development of more efficient, and chemically targeted, biomass-conversion technologies.
Related Concept Videos
Atomic Nuclei: Magnetic Resonance
Insensitive Nuclei Enhanced by Polarization Transfer (INEPT)
Double Resonance Techniques: Overview
Spin decoupling is usually achieved by...
Atomic Nuclei: Nuclear Relaxation Processes
Nuclear Overhauser Enhancement (NOE)
¹³C NMR: ¹H–¹³C Decoupling
A broadband decoupling technique is used to simplify these complex, sometimes overlapping, signals. Broadband decoupling relies on a...

