WOOD SUGAR ANALYSIS BY ANION CHROMATOGRAPHY

Two wood and two wood-pulp samples were hydrolyzed in triplicate in sulfuric acid. The sugar monomers were separated by anion-exchange chromatography and quantitatively measured with a pulsed amperometric detector. A portion of each sugar solution was neutralized with sodium hydroxide and analyzed for the sugar content in the same manner as the unneutralized hydrolysates. The results from analyses of acid and neutral solutions were consistent. Detection limits for the individual sugars ranged from 25 ng for arabinose to 13 ng for glucose using a signal to noise ratio of three for the detection limit.