We developed a microkinetic model to investigate the dissociation of methane on transition metal catalysts. This model aims at gaining more insight in the impact of specific plasma characteristics on the total conversion and to compare the results of thermal catalysis with plasma catalysis. We focus on the effects of reactive plasma species as well as vibrational excitations on the total rate of conversion and the selectivity towards ethane, ethylene and acetylene. Based on the results of DFT calculations, we built scaling relations for the dissociation, dehydrogenation, disproportionation and coupling reactions for the conversion of CH4 to C2Hx. These scaling relations allow the generation of ‘volcano’plots that show the logarithm of the turnover frequencies as function of the binding energy of CH3. The results encompass a thorough comparison of the volcano plots under different sets of reaction conditions. We examine the effects of temperature, conversion, densities of plasma species and vibrational temperature for both stepped surfaces and terraces. Ultimately, we make suggestions for the optimal catalysts and reaction conditions for the conversion of methane to ethane, ethylene and acetylene.

Plasma catalysis for methane dissociation: Investigation of optimal reaction conditions for C2Hx formation

2019 Spring National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.