Stepwise Methane‐to‐Methanol Conversion on CuO/SBA‐15

Abstract

Abstract The direct partial oxidation of methane to methanol is a challenging scientific and economical objective to expand the application of this abundant fuel gas as a major resource for one‐step production of value‐added chemicals. Despite substantial efforts to commercialize this synthetic route, to date no heterogeneous catalyst can selectively oxidize methane to methanol by O 2 with an economically acceptable conversion. Cu‐exchanged zeolites have been recently highlighted as one of the most promising bioinspired catalysts toward the direct production of methanol from methane under mild conditions. In this work, Cu‐based catalysts were prepared using mesoporous silica SBA‐15 as an alternative support and their activity for this conversion was investigated. The results demonstrate that highly dispersed CuO species on SBA‐15 are able to react with methane and subsequently produce methanol with high selectivity (>84 %) through water‐assisted extraction. Furthermore, it was confirmed that the main intermediate formed after interaction of the catalyst with methane is a methoxyl species, which can be further converted to methanol or dimethyl ether on extraction with water or methanol, respectively.