Confined Cu-OH Single Sites in SSZ-13 Zeolite for the Direct Oxidation of Methane to Methanol

Overview

Journal Nat Commun

Specialty Biology

Date 2023 Nov 24

PMID 38001068

Authors

Hailong Zhang

Peijie Han

Danfeng Wu

Congcong Du

Jiafei Zhao

Kelvin H L Zhang

Jingdong Lin

Shaolong Wan

Jianyu Huang

Shuai Wang

Haifeng Xiong

Yong Wang

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

The direct oxidation of methane to methanol (MTM) remains a significant challenge in heterogeneous catalysis due to the high dissociation energy of the C-H bond in methane and the high desorption energy of methanol. In this work, we demonstrate a breakthrough in selective MTM by achieving a high methanol space-time yield of 2678 mmol molCu-1 h-1 with 93% selectivity in a continuous methane-steam reaction at 400 °C. The superior performance is attributed to the confinement effect of 6-membered ring (6MR) voids in SSZ-13 zeolite, which host isolated Cu-OH single sites. Our results provide a deeper understanding of the role of Cu-zeolites in continuous methane-steam to methanol conversion and pave the way for further improvement.

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