Optimal Water Coverage on Alumina: A Key to Generate Lewis Acid–Base Pairs that are Reactive Towards the CH Bond Activation of Methane

Abstract

A low OH coverage, resulting from pretreatment at 700 °C, generates metastable three-coordinate AlIII sites and reactive (AlIII,O) Lewis acid–base pairs on γ-alumina. Water plays a dual role by increasing the basicity of oxygen atoms without affecting the Lewis acidity of the AlIII sites and by stabilizing the metastable (110) termination, where these sites exist.