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Oxidative coupling of methane over NbO (p-type) and Nb2O5 (n-type) semiconductor materials

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Abstract

Oxidative coupling of methane to higher hydrocarbons was investigated using two types of semiconductor catalysts, NbO (p-type) and Nb2O5 (n-type) at 1 atm pressure. The ratio of methane partial pressure to oxygen partial pressure was changed from 2 to 112 and the temperature was kept at 1023 K in the experiments conducted in a cofeed mode. The results indicated a strong correlation between C2+ selectivity performance and the electronic properties of the catalyst in terms of p-vs. n-type conductivity. The p-type semiconductor catalyst, NbO, had a larger selectivity (e.g. 95.92%) over the n-type Nb2O5 catalyst (23.08%) both at the same methane conversion of 0.64%. Catalyst characterization via X-ray diffraction, TGA and reaction studies indicated that NbO was transformed to Nb2O5 during the course of the reaction which limits catalyst life.

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Author notes

  1. Isik Onal

    Present address: Chemical Engineering Department, University of California, 405 Hilgard Avenue, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Middle East Technical University, Ankara, Turkey

    Yesim Erarslanoglu, Isik Onal & Timur Dogu

  2. Department of Chemical Engineering, University of California, 90095, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Selim Senkan

Authors
  1. Yesim Erarslanoglu
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  2. Isik Onal
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  3. Timur Dogu
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  4. Selim Senkan
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Erarslanoglu, Y., Onal, I., Dogu, T. et al. Oxidative coupling of methane over NbO (p-type) and Nb2O5 (n-type) semiconductor materials. Catal Lett 38, 215–218 (1996). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00806571

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00806571

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