Issue 4, 2022

Room-temperature coupling of methane with singlet oxygen

Abstract

Owing to emission of methane (CH4) causing global warming and waste of resources, conversion of CH4 to value-added chemicals can mitigate environmental sustainability and energy concerns. Direct room-temperature coupling of CH4 to form ethane (CH3CH3) challenges chemists owing to the strong C–H bonds requiring high temperature (>700 °C) for dehydrogenation of CH4. Oxidative coupling is a promising approach for CH4 conversion to C2H6 using solar energy at room temperature. To achieve high efficiency of C2H6 formation, using an appropriate oxidant is a potential strategy to avoid overoxidation during the CH4 coupling process. Singlet oxygen (1O2) has typically manifested a mild redox capacity with a high selectivity to attack organic substrate CH4. Here, we report a synergistic photocatalytic-oxidative route for direct CH4 coupling. Under solar light irradiation, a high CH3CH3 generation rate of 647 μmol g−1 h−1 is achieved at 25 °C. Our work demonstrates that the solar-oxidative route can result in new and useful C1-based catalytic behaviors.

Graphical abstract: Room-temperature coupling of methane with singlet oxygen

Supplementary files

Article information

Article type
Communication
Submitted
22 Feb 2022
Accepted
30 Jun 2022
First published
03 Aug 2022
This article is Open Access
Creative Commons BY license

Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2022,1, 438-442

Room-temperature coupling of methane with singlet oxygen

A. Huang, J. Wang, X. Wu, H. Liu, J. Cai, G. Q. Xu and S. L. Wang, Environ. Sci.: Adv., 2022, 1, 438 DOI: 10.1039/D2VA00034B

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