Research Progress of Lignin Oxidative Degradation

Lignin is the second most abundant natural polymer. Oxidative degradation of lignin polymer is a very promising approach in lignin valorisation, which offers the possibility to provide highly functional monomer and oligomer products in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries instead of fossil fuels used as the starting materials of the process of other valorisation. This paper focuses on the oxidative modification methods of lignin and its model compounds, including biocatalysis, biomimetic catalysis, organometallic catalysis, electrochemistry catalytic oxidation and several other oxidation methods, and a brief discussion of the reaction mechanism in the process of oxidative degradation.