Formation of methanol from methane and water in an electrical discharge

Abstract

Matrix isolation FTIR experiments have shown that methanol is a major product when argon gas doped with water and methane is exposed to an electrical discharge and condensed to a solid matrix at 11 K. Experiments with ²H, ¹⁷O and ¹⁸O-labeled isotopologues show the mechanism for the methanol production is likely to be insertion of an excited oxygen atom in the ¹D state into a C–H bond of a methane molecule. In light of these experiments, the possibility of oxygen atom insertion into methane should be considered as a possible mechanism for the production of methanol in interstellar ices.