DOE PAGES title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Screening of Cu-Based Catalysts for Selective Methane to Methanol Conversion

Journal Article · · Journal of Physical Chemistry. C
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]
  1. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  2. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Stony Brook Univ., NY (United States)

Developing selective catalysts for methane conversion to added value chemicals has been considered as a promising approach for efficient utilization of abundant natural gas resources. Here, we present a descriptor-based screening for high methane conversion and methanol selectivity at the interfaces between metal oxide clusters and Cu2O/Cu(111) support (MOx/Cu2O/Cu(111), M = Mg, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Ti, Zr, Sn, Ce) on exposure to the mixture of CH4/O2/H2O. Wherein, the activation energy of direct methane to methanol conversion, *OH + *CH4 → *CH3OH + *H, and the ratio for adsorption energy of oxygen and water, Eads(O2)/Eads(H2O), are identified as the effective descriptor for methane conversion and methanol selectivity, respectively. Finally, by providing an exceptional oxygen and hydroxyl sites with high-lying O 2p states, the MgO/Cu2O/Cu(111) catalyst is found to be the most promising system among the systems studied, being able to provide the highest methane conversion with high methanol selectivity.

Research Organization:
Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States). National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center (NERSC)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Basic Energy Sciences (BES). Chemical Sciences, Geosciences & Biosciences Division (CSGB)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0012704; AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
2382640
Report Number(s):
BNL--225761-2024-JAAM
Journal Information:
Journal of Physical Chemistry. C, Journal Name: Journal of Physical Chemistry. C Journal Issue: 19 Vol. 128; ISSN 1932-7447
Publisher:
American Chemical SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (68)

Direct Catalytic Conversion of Methane to Methanol in an Aqueous Medium by using Copper-Promoted Fe-ZSM-5 journal April 2012
Stabilization of Catalytically Active Cu + Surface Sites on Titanium-Copper Mixed-Oxide Films journal April 2014
Future Directions and Industrial Perspectives Micro- and macro-kinetics: Their relationship in heterogeneous catalysis journal September 1994
On the usefulness of Campbell's concept of the rate-determining step journal February 1999
Synergetic C–H bond activation and C–O formation on CuOx facilities facile conversion of methane to methanol journal August 2023
From the Sabatier principle to a predictive theory of transition-metal heterogeneous catalysis journal August 2015
Degree of rate control approach to computational catalyst screening journal October 2015
CH3 radical-mediated direct methane to methanol conversion over CuO supported on rutile oxides journal March 2024
Natural gas from shale formation – The evolution, evidences and challenges of shale gas revolution in United States journal February 2014
Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol under Mild Conditions over Cu-Zeolites and beyond journal January 2017
Enzymatic Oxidation of Methane journal March 2015
Alkane Oxidation: Methane Monooxygenases, Related Enzymes, and Their Biomimetics journal February 2017
Iron and Copper Active Sites in Zeolites and Their Correlation to Metalloenzymes journal December 2017
Understanding Methanol Synthesis on Inverse ZnO/CuO x /Cu Catalysts: Stability of CH 3 O Species and Dynamic Nature of the Surface journal March 2021
Theoretical Insights into Methane C–H Bond Activation on Alkaline Metal Oxides journal July 2017
Theoretical Perspective of Promoting Direct Methane-to-Methanol Conversion at Complex Metal Oxide–Metal Interfaces journal July 2023
Highly Selective Methane to Methanol Conversion on Inverse SnO2/Cu2O/Cu(111) Catalysts: Unique Properties of SnO2 Nanostructures and the Inhibition of the Direct Oxidative Combustion of Methane journal September 2022
Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol by Metal-Exchanged ZSM-5 Zeolite (Metal = Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) journal November 2016
Computationally Exploring Confinement Effects in the Methane-to-Methanol Conversion Over Iron-Oxo Centers in Zeolites journal November 2016
The Degree of Rate Control: A Powerful Tool for Catalysis Research journal March 2017
Understanding and Breaking Scaling Relations in Single-Site Catalysis: Methane to Methanol Conversion by Fe IV ═O journal January 2018
Direct Methane to Methanol: The Selectivity–Conversion Limit and Design Strategies journal June 2018
Dry Reforming of Methane on Single-Site Ni/MgO Catalysts: Importance of Site Confinement journal September 2018
Methane-to-Methanol: Activity Descriptors in Copper-Exchanged Zeolites for the Rational Design of Materials journal May 2019
The Key Role of Support Surface Hydrogenation in the CH 4 to CH 3 OH Selective Oxidation by a ZrO 2 -Supported Single-Atom Catalyst journal August 2019
Descriptor Design in the Computational Screening of Ni-Based Catalysts with Balanced Activity and Stability for Dry Reforming of Methane Reaction journal February 2020
Catalytic Oxidation of Methane into Methanol over Copper-Exchanged Zeolites with Oxygen at Low Temperature journal April 2016
DFT Virtual Screening Identifies Rhodium–Amidinate Complexes As Potential Homogeneous Catalysts for Methane-to-Methanol Oxidation journal November 2014
Degree of Rate Control: How Much the Energies of Intermediates and Transition States Control Rates journal June 2009
Selective Methane Oxidation to Methanol on ZnO/Cu2O/Cu(111) Catalysts: Multiple Site-Dependent Behaviors journal November 2021
Activation and Conversion of Methane to Syngas over ZrO2/Cu(111) Catalysts near Room Temperature journal April 2023
Low-Temperature Conversion of Methane to Methanol on CeO x /Cu 2 O Catalysts: Water Controlled Activation of the C–H Bond journal October 2016
Methane to Methanol: Structure–Activity Relationships for Cu-CHA journal October 2017
Selective Activation of Methane on Single-Atom Catalyst of Rhodium Dispersed on Zirconia for Direct Conversion journal November 2017
Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol on Ni-Ceria Surfaces: Metal–Support Interactions and Water-Enabled Catalytic Conversion by Site Blocking journal May 2018
New Strategies for Direct Methane-to-Methanol Conversion from Active Learning Exploration of 16 Million Catalysts journal April 2022
Activity Descriptors for CO 2 Electroreduction to Methane on Transition-Metal Catalysts journal January 2012
Crystal structure of a bacterial non-haem iron hydroxylase that catalyses the biological oxidation of methane journal December 1993
Oxidation of methane by a biological dicopper centre journal April 2010
The active site of low-temperature methane hydroxylation in iron-containing zeolites journal August 2016
Towards the computational design of solid catalysts journal April 2009
Single-site trinuclear copper oxygen clusters in mordenite for selective conversion of methane to methanol journal June 2015
Understanding trends in C–H bond activation in heterogeneous catalysis journal October 2016
Catalyst design via descriptors journal May 2022
Accelerated discovery of CO2 electrocatalysts using active machine learning journal May 2020
Active learning across intermetallics to guide discovery of electrocatalysts for CO2 reduction and H2 evolution journal September 2018
Highly selective oxidation of methane to methanol at ambient conditions by titanium dioxide-supported iron species journal November 2018
Mechanistic insights into heterogeneous methane activation journal January 2017
Metal dimer sites in ZSM-5 zeolite for methane-to-methanol conversion from first-principles kinetic modelling: is the [Cu–O–Cu] 2+ motif relevant for Ni, Co, Fe, Ag, and Au? journal January 2017
Active sites and mechanisms in the direct conversion of methane to methanol using Cu in zeolitic hosts: a critical examination journal January 2020
Surface characterization and methane activation on SnO x /Cu 2 O/Cu(111) inverse oxide/metal catalysts journal January 2021
Enhanced descriptor identification and mechanism understanding for catalytic activity using a data-driven framework: revealing the importance of interactions between elementary steps journal January 2022
Prediction of solid oxide fuel cell cathode activity with first-principles descriptors journal January 2011
Improved tangent estimate in the nudged elastic band method for finding minimum energy paths and saddle points journal December 2000
Density functional theory in surface chemistry and catalysis journal January 2011
Inhomogeneous Electron Gas journal November 1964
Self-Consistent Equations Including Exchange and Correlation Effects journal November 1965
Special points for Brillouin-zone integrations journal June 1976
Projector augmented-wave method journal December 1994
Efficient iterative schemes for ab initio total-energy calculations using a plane-wave basis set journal October 1996
Electron-energy-loss spectra and the structural stability of nickel oxide: An LSDA+U study journal January 1998
From ultrasoft pseudopotentials to the projector augmented-wave method journal January 1999
Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple journal October 1996
Selective anaerobic oxidation of methane enables direct synthesis of methanol journal May 2017
Dry reforming of methane by stable Ni–Mo nanocatalysts on single-crystalline MgO journal February 2020
Particulate methane monooxygenase contains only mononuclear copper centers journal May 2019
Water-promoted interfacial pathways in methane oxidation to methanol on a CeO 2 -Cu 2 O catalyst journal April 2020
Bioinspired methane oxidation in a zeolite journal July 2021