Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a major fuel source for electricity generation and used as a precursor to produce commodity chemicals. Photocatalysis provides an attractive route to convert methane into an energy dense fuel, such as methanol or formaldehyde, using only light, water, and the photocatalyst as inputs. This talk will discuss how the morphology of bismuth vanadate microcrystals affects this material’s activity for photocatalytic methane oxidation. Bipyramidal bismuth vanadate microcrystals composed of {120} and {021} surface facets are more active, more selective, and more stable for methane to methanol conversion compared to platelet particles that expose {001} crystal facets as their top and bottom surface. On the other hand, platelet bismuth vanadate microcrystals have been previously reported to be highly active for photocatalytic water oxidation. The observed differences in photocatalytic activity are rationalized based on the transport and surface reactivity of photogenerated electrons and holes for bismuth vanadate microcrystals of different shapes.

Photocatalytic methane conversion using shape-controlled semiconductor microcrystals

254th National Meeting (2017)

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