Selective functionalization of methane, ethane, and higher alkanes by cerium photocatalysis

Methane manipulated with a light touch

24 June 2019

An inexpensive catalyst powered by light can turn gaseous hydrocarbon molecules such as methane into valuable liquid organic molecules, Shanghai Tech University researchers have shown.

Photocatalysis is currently enjoying a resurgence of interest in synthetic organic chemistry, with visible-light-driven ‘photoredox’ catalysis in particular enjoying a moment in the sun. Once activated by light, photoredox catalysts can break otherwise unreactive bonds in organic molecules, as a step toward creating new molecules difficult to make by other means.

Methane, or natural gas, has great potential as an inexpensive chemical feedstock — but gaseous reactants can hard to handle in chemical reactions, and methane is an unreactive molecule.

The team has now shown that inexpensive cerium salts can act as visible-light photocatalysts in a reaction to turn methane and related gaseous hydrocarbons into various liquid products. The starting gas and a liquid mixture containing the catalyst could simply be pumped together through a network of transparent tubes bathed in light to produce the product.

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References

1. Science 361, 668–672 (2018). doi: 10.1126/science.aat9750