Abstract
The biopolymer lignin is a potential source of valuable chemicals. Phenethyl phenyl ether (PPE) is representative of the dominant $\beta$-O-4 ether linkage. Density functional theory (DFT) is used to calculate the Boltzmann-weighted carbon-oxygen and carbon-carbon bond dissociation enthalpies (BDEs) of substituted PPE. These values are important in order to understand lignin decomposition. Exclusion of all conformers that have distributions of less than 5\% at 298 K impacts the BDE by less than 1 kcal mol$^{-1}$. We find that aliphatic hydroxyl/methylhydroxyl substituents introduce only small changes to the BDEs (0-3 kcal mol$^{-1}$). Substitution on the phenyl ring at the $ortho$ position substantially lowers the C-O BDE, except in combination with the hydroxyl/methylhydroxyl substituents, where the effect of methoxy substitution is reduced by hydrogen bonding. Hydrogen bonding between the aliphatic substituents and the ether oxygen in the PPE derivatives has a significant influence on the BDE. CCSD(T)-calculated BDEs and hydrogen bond strengths of $ortho$-substituted anisoles when compared with M06-2X values confirm that the latter method is sufficient to describe the molecules studied and provide an important benchmark for lignin model compounds.