Converting natural gas:quantum-sized bismuth vanadate holds the key for selective photocatalytic oxidation of methane

• 作者: Lianzhou Wang
• 来源期刊: 中国科学：化学（英文版）
• 年，卷（期）: 2021,（5）
• 所属期刊栏目: HIGHLIGHTS
• 页码范围: 686-687
• 页数: 2页
• 语种: 英文

摘要

Methane (CH4) is the main component of natural gas,causing severe greenhouse effect [1].To date,about 90％ of CH4 is burned into carbon dioxide (CO2) and released into the atmosphere through various ways,resulting in not only a waste of resource but also a damage to the environment [2].Seeking efficient ways to convert CH4 into valuable fuels and chemicals is highly appealing for the rational use of fossil fuels and renewable energy feedstock,as well as for reducing greenhouse gas emission.Photocatalytic CH4 oxi-dation represents a promising greener approach that utilizes abundant sunlight to produce liquid fuels under mild con-ditions compared with the traditional thermocatalytic con-version of CH4 process.Among various products,methanol(CH3OH) and formaldehyde (HCHO) as value-added che-micals are considered to be the target products of CH4 oxi-dation [3,4].However,from thermodynamics aspect,CH4 oxidation is energy-downhill process (CH4 → CH3OOH →CH3OH → HCHO → CO2) [5],while CH3OH and HCHO are two metastable intermediates.It is thus highly challen-ging to balance the productivity and selectivity of CH3OH and HCHO,respectively.