Methane, the prevalent component of natural gas, is an abundant compound and useful resource that is currently underutilized. Syngas production is still the only major chemical conversion process of methane, and occurs at high temperatures in centralized facilities. Furthermore, methane flaring is causing the release of toxic compounds in the atmosphere. Methane is considered a transition fuel to a sustainable future, given its high hydrogen-to-carbon ratio, but its activation to more functional forms has to be improved to make this concept a reality. Fundamental understanding of methane activation processes, and preparation of more active and selective materials is of primary importance. In this contribution, catalysts prepared from nanocrystal precursors with controlled size and composition for methane activation are presented. The focus is on controlling the catalyst morphology and understanding reaction mechanisms, to then improve current methane activation technologies. Several examples on the use of this strategy are reported, with the intention to demonstrate how the use of controlled nanocrystals can improve not only our fundamental understanding of catalytic processes, but also produce active, stable and selective catalysts that perform under realistic reaction conditions.

Understanding and promoting methane activation using nanocrystal catalysts

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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