Methane activation over a boron nitride catalyst driven by in situ formed molecular water

Boron nitride can catalyze the oxidative conversion of methane to valuable chemicals with minor formation of CO2. B–O–H groups, both originally existing and in situ generated in the reaction, promote the activation of O2 and CH4, and a novel H2O-assisted O2 and CH4 synergetic mutual activation mechanism was proposed.