Abstract
The partial oxidation of methane into more useful chemicals such as methanol, ethylene and benzene has been investigated extensively, although yields for these products have been poor1–4. Moreover, in several of these processes the required oxidant is N2O rather than O2. Recent work5 in our laboratory has demonstrated that lithium-doped magnesium oxide (Li/MgO) in the presence of O2 has high activity for abstracting H from CH4 to form ·CH3 radicals. This suggests that C2H6 and C2H4 (C2 compounds) are produced by a coupling between two gaseous ·CH3 radicals formed on this catalyst. We report here our success in converting CH4 to C2 compounds in high yields in conventional catalytic conditions.
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Ito, T., Lunsford, J. Synthesis of ethylene and ethane by partial oxidation of methane over lithium-doped magnesium oxide. Nature 314, 721–722 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1038/314721b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/314721b0
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