Methane is a primary component of abundant low-cost natural gas, but it is currently underutilized and exhausted wastefully, affecting global warming. Therefore, exploiting and converting this inefficiently wasted resource to value-added chemicals is drawing great attention. The key to converting methane to other valuable chemicals is to activate highly stable C-H bonds in methane and control the first C-H bond dissociation since it is known as the rate limiting step in the direct methane conversion process. Our primary goal in this project is to develop an efficient catalyst which enables to reduce the energy barrier for the first C-H bond dissociation so that methane can be activated at low or moderate temperatures. Herein, we report the SnOx/Cu2O/Cu(111) inverse catalyst for the first time. The morphology of well-dispersed single-atom like SnOx nanoclusters on Cu2O/Cu(111) was identified by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and their chemical state was further studied by Ambient Pressure X-ray Photoemission Spectroscopy (AP-XPS). This novel model catalyst showed low temperature activation of methane and can guide the design of new efficient catalysts for methane to methanol conversion.

Surface studies of SnOx/Cu2O/Cu(111) inverse catalysts for methane activation

ACS Fall 2021

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