How to Use lignin in a Sentence
lignin
noun-
For the nanowood, the team removed the lignin, the polymer that holds the cellulose of wood together.
—Emily Matchar, Smithsonian, 26 Mar. 2018
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One of the things that makes wood wood is a polymer known as lignin which forms support structures in trees and plants.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 8 Feb. 2018
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But for this project, Hu and his colleagues removed all of the lignin and most of the hemicellulose.
—Amina Khan, latimes.com, 10 Mar. 2018
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To remove much of the lignin, pieces of balsa wood were treated with heat and chemicals for 5 hours.
—IEEE Spectrum, 29 Apr. 2023
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Both grants involved the study of lignin, a complex organic polymer found in plants that makes them woody and rigid.
—Katherine Long, The Seattle Times, 21 Sep. 2017
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The third is to find employment for lignin, a by-product of the pulping process which is, at the moment, usually burned.
—The Economist, 17 Oct. 2019
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Instead, the main components of wood are cellulose and lignin.
—Chris Lee, Ars Technica, 5 Apr. 2018
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The scientists discovered that gribbles use hemocyanins to attack the strong bonds of lignin.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 5 Dec. 2018
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Some of those found at Clarkia include lignin, which is the structural support tissue of plants, lipids like fats and waxes, and possibly DNA and amino acids.
—Robert Patalano, The Conversation, 5 Feb. 2024
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These sprout from trees that the fungi are in the process of consuming from the inside out, transforming lignin and cellulose into chitin.
—Discover Magazine, 23 Aug. 2012
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The lignin, hemicellulose, and other polymers that give the wood structure break down to produce sweet, vanilla notes.
—Wayne Curtis, WIRED, 30 May 2017
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The first step in that process (as in Hu’s) is to remove lignin, a substance that not only stiffens wood but also creates its brownish color.
—Sid Perkins, Scientific American, 7 Feb. 2018
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Leaf litter from trees attacked by lace bugs is higher in lignin, a type of fiber that decomposes very slowly.
—Ula Chrobak, Popular Science, 9 Mar. 2020
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Furthermore, wood chips are high in lignins and other hard-to-digest compounds, and the decomposition process will be very slow.
—oregonlive, 12 Apr. 2020
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Ultraviolet rays break down lignin, the component in wood that holds the fibers together.
—Jeanne Huber, Washington Post, 24 June 2019
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The second most abundant naturally-occurring polymer on Earth, lignin is what makes wood rigid and brown.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 8 Feb. 2018
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Somewhat counterintuitively, Hu and his team removed the wood's lignin polymers in order to make their wood even stronger.
—David Grossman, Popular Mechanics, 8 Feb. 2018
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If the smeller determines that the old book smells like almonds, then that could be the result of benzaldehyde, a chemical that forms when lignin, a component of some paper pulp, degrades.
—Jessica Wapner, Newsweek, 1 May 2017
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Beckham and his colleagues are looking to lignin, a durable polymer that makes trees and grasses stand tall, and could be used to make a whole suite of other plastics and useful materials.
—Eva Botkin-Kowacki, The Christian Science Monitor, 5 July 2018
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The trees incorporated the acid into their lignin, creating weak points in the chemical structure.
—Carl Engelking, Discover Magazine, 4 Apr. 2014
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Without all that lignin, the woody material turned pure white, allowing it to reflect incoming light rather than absorb it (which also helps to block heat).
—Amina Khan, latimes.com, 10 Mar. 2018
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Heat can travel up and down the fibers with ease, but can't easily cross them, particularly because of the air gaps left after all the woody filler (lignin and hemicellulose) was removed.
—Amina Khan, latimes.com, 10 Mar. 2018
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Perhaps some critter in the ocean's food chain could be altered to excrete an organic biopolymer like lignin that's hard to metabolize, which would settle to the seafloor and sequester carbon.
—David Fork, IEEE Spectrum, 28 June 2021
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These two chemicals work together to partially remove lignin and hemicellulose, two polymers that make the cell walls of plants rigid.
—Marissa Fessenden, Smithsonian, 10 Feb. 2018
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Recent breakthroughs in producing plastics from cellulose or lignin (the dry matter in plants) promise to overcome those drawbacks.
—Scientific American, 1 Dec. 2019
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The mechanism: Plants evolved the fibrous carbon-containing material lignin for their stems and bark, millions of years before other creatures evolved ways to digest it.
—David Fork, IEEE Spectrum, 28 June 2021
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For nearly 100 million years after trees evolved in the Carboniferous period, nothing could break down the tough lignin that gives wood its rigidity, so dead trees piled up in swampy deposits that hardened under pressure and over time.
—Jennifer Fergesen, Time, 18 Oct. 2022
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These days lignin has become cost-effective for 3D printing or adhesives, and it can be plasticized or used to reinforce other bioplastics.
—Troy Farah, Ars Technica, 20 Jan. 2020
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Lignin Wurm says one of the most promising bioplastic candidates is lignin, a blackish biodegradable byproduct of paper manufacturing.
—Troy Farah, Ars Technica, 20 Jan. 2020
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Imitation vanillin extracted from lignin or guaiacol is very standard, rather than distinct.
—Simran Sethi, Smithsonian, 3 Apr. 2017
Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'lignin.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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