The new method uses light to turn methane directly into methanol

A international research team led by scientists at the University of Manchester in the United Kingdom has developed a fast way to use light and photocatalytic materials to directly transform methane into liquid methanol at normal temperature. This result not only helps energy conservation and emission reduction, but also can obtain economic benefits, because the methanol you can use can be used to make many useful items. Related studies have recently published in the "Nature · Materials" magazine.

Natural methane is a rich and valuable fuel, but it is also dangerous due to difficulty in extract, transportation and storage. In addition, methane gas release or leaks to the atmosphere is also harmful to the environment. Excessive methane is usually burned to reduce its impact on the environment, but combustion will generate greenhouse gas carbon dioxide. In view of this, the industrial world has been seeking economic efficiency methods to transform methane into methanol. As oil reserves continue to decrease, converting methane into fuels such as methanol is also increasingly attractive.

Researchers explained that the main challenge of transforming methane into methanol is to weaken or destroy the carbon -hydrogen chemical bond to insert oxygen atom to form a carbon -hydrogen and oxygen bond. Traditional conversion methods usually include two stages: steam reorganization and synthetic gas oxidation, but it needs to be performed at high temperature and high pressure, which will consume a lot of energy, high cost and low efficiency.

The latest method uses the new metal organic framework (MOF) catalytic material and visible light to drive the conversion. When exposed to light, methane and oxygen -containing water flow over the MOF particles. MOF contains different design components. These components are located in a fixed position in the porous structure. They absorb light together and produce electrons. These electrons are passed to the oxygen and methane in the hole to form methanol. Researchers also observed and confirmed this process with the help of the facilities on the scattered neutron source of Oak Ling National Laboratory.

Researchers said that this process did not produce adverse by -products. Moreover, the experiment shows that after the solid catalyst is separated, cleaned, dry, and reused at least 10 times (or about 200 hours of reaction time), the performance has no loss.

The latest research communications author and dean of the School of Science and Engineering at the University of Manchester, Martin Schroder, said: "The new light catalytic process is similar to the photosynthetic effect of plants. The leaves absorb the sun and carbon dioxide. Water vapor. Now we can use a similar process to turn methane directly into methanol, and this new MOF material is also expected to catalyze other chemical reactions. "(Science and Technology Daily)

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