Highly Selective Methane‐to‐Methanol Conversion Enabled by Bimetallic Nanoclusters Using Molecular Oxygen

Abstract

ABSTRACT Methane, the most stable alkane, is significantly more stable than its partial oxidation products. This renders the highly selective conversion of CH 4 to CH 3 OH an extremely intractable challenge, especially when using molecular oxygen as the oxidant. In this work, we synthesized a bimetallic‐modified zeolite composite catalyst (PdCo bimetallic nanoclusters supported on H‐ZSM‐5 molecular sieve, denoted as PdCo@H‐ZSM‐5) via a simple impregnation method. PdCo@H‐ZSM‐5 can efficiently activate H 2 and O 2 to highly selectively oxidize CH 4 to CH 3 OH under mild conditions (70°C), achieving a remarkable CH 3 OH yield of 2349 µmol g cat −1  h −1 (249 mmol g Pd −1  h −1 ). Significantly, PdCo@H‐ZSM‐5 is the sole catalyst reported to date that can achieve over 99% CH 3 OH selectivity in the oxidation of CH 4 by molecular oxygen under mild conditions. This work is expected to inspire new technologies for industrial CH 4 to CH 3 OH conversion, promoting more sustainable chemistry and engineering. Furthermore, the low‐energy consumption, high‐efficiency activated oxygen catalyst eliminates the necessity for transporting and storing highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide, serving as a foundation for other green oxidation reactions.