Successful oxidative upgrading of methane to methanol and/or carbon monoxide would simultaneously utilize abundant shale gas reserves, reduce human reliance on traditional fossil fuels, and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions in a thermodynamically favorable manner.  Unfortunately, the key issue with the oxidative conversion of methane is related to selectivity, rather than reactivity.  To partially oxidize methane, catalysts must be designed that either disfavor the elementary steps comprising the total oxidation process, or selectively release only a requisite amount of oxygen to produce the desired products.  We present results of our recent efforts to design heterogeneous catalysts based on biomimetic principles for selective methane oxidation.  We show how to leverage density functional theory analysis and materials informatics approaches to screen candidate materials for catalytic activity and selectivity.  We also demonstrate an experimental protocol to quantify methane activation and validate our theoretical predictions.

Biomimetic catalysts for selective methane oxidation

248th National Meeting (2014)

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