Platinum‐ and CuO_<i>x</i>‐Decorated TiO₂ Photocatalyst for Oxidative Coupling of Methane to C₂ Hydrocarbons in a Flow Reactor

Abstract

Oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) is considered one of the most promising catalytic technologies to upgrade methane. However, C₂ products (C₂ H₆ /C₂ H₄ ) from conventional methane conversion have not been produced commercially owing to competition from overoxidation and carbon accumulation at high temperatures. Herein, we report the codeposition of Pt nanoparticles and CuO_x clusters on TiO₂ (PC-50) and use of the resulting photocatalyst for OCM in a flow reactor operated at room temperature under atmospheric pressure for the first time. The optimized Cu_0.1 Pt_0.5 /PC-50 sample showed a highest yield of C₂ product of 6.8 μmol h^-1 at a space velocity of 2400 h^-1 , more than twice the sum of the activity of Pt/PC-50 (1.07 μmol h^-1 ) and Cu/PC-50 (1.9 μmol h^-1 ), it might also be the highest among photocatalytic methane conversions reported so far under atmospheric pressure. A high C₂ selectivity of 60 % is also comparable to that attainable by conventional high-temperature (>943 K) thermal catalysis. It is proposed that Pt functions as an electron acceptor to facilitate charge separation, while holes could transfer to CuO_x to avoid deep dehydrogenation and the overoxidation of C₂ products.