Researchers realize electrochemical conversion of methane and O₂ to HCOOH at room temperature

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Researchers realize electrochemical conversion of methane and O₂ to HCOOH at room temperature

Researchers realize electrochemical conversion of CH4 and O₂ to HCOOH at room temperature. Credit: Journal of the ********* Chemical Society

Direct conversion of CH₄ and O₂ to value-added chemicals is important for natural gas industries. However, challenges remain due to the difficulty of O₂ activation in forming active oxygen species for CH₄ activation under mild conditions.

Recently, a research group led by Prof. Deng Dehui, Assoc. Prof. Cui Xiaoju and Yu Liang from the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics (DICP) of the ******** Academy of Sciences (CAS) realized the electrochemical conversion of CH₄ by O₂ to HCOOH at room temperature. This study was

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in Journal of the ********* Chemical Society.

The researchers developed a high-pressure electro-Fenton strategy to establish a hetero-homogeneous process for electro-catalytic conversion of CH₄ by O₂ at room temperature. They revealed that CH₄ was efficiently activated by ·OH, which was produced via a heterogeneous electroreduction of O₂ to H₂O₂ on the Ag foil cathode, followed by a homogeneous Fe²⁺-facilitated H₂O₂ decomposition.

Additionally, the researchers found that the elevated pressure not only improved the productivity of H₂O₂ from O₂ electro-reduction but also boosted the reaction collision probability between CH₄ and active ·OH in-situ generated from Fe²⁺-facilitated decomposition of H₂O₂.

Compared with the traditional electro-catalytic CH₄ conversion process with high overpotential (>0.9 V) and low Faradaic efficiency (< 60%), the high-pressure electro-Fenton process achieved an HCOOH Faradaic efficiency of 81.4% with an ultra-low cathodic overpotential of 0.38 V. The HCOOH productivity was 11.5 mmol h^-1 gFe^-1, which was 220 times that of ambient pressure.

“This work provides a new way for energy-efficient and sustainable conversion of CH₄ by directly using O₂ under mild conditions,” said Prof. Deng.

More information:
Yao Song et al, High-Pressure Electro-Fenton Driving CH₄ Conversion by O₂ at Room Temperature, Journal of the ********* Chemical Society (2024).

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Researchers realize electrochemical conversion of methane and O₂ to HCOOH at room temperature (2024, March 26)
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