| Institution: | 1. Institute for Integrated Catalysis, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999, Richland, WA, 99352 USA;2. Department of Chemistry and Catalysis Research Institute, TU München, Lichtenbergstrasse 4, 85748 Garching, Germany;3. Inorganic Systems Engineering (ISE), Department of Chemical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, 2629 HZ Delft, The Netherlands;4. Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 06520 USA |
| Abstract: | Copper-oxo clusters exchanged in zeolite mordenite are active in the stoichiometric conversion of methane to methanol at low temperatures. Here, we show an unprecedented methanol yield per Cu of 0.6, with a 90–95 % selectivity, on a MOR solely containing Cu3(μ-O)3]2+ active sites. DFT calculations, spectroscopic characterization and kinetic analysis show that increasing the chemical potential of methane enables the utilization of two μ-oxo bridge oxygen out of the three available in the tricopper-oxo cluster structure. Methanol and methoxy groups are stabilized in parallel, leading to methanol desorption in the presence of water. |
