Methane-to-Methanol: Activity Descriptors in Copper-exchanged Zeolites for the Rational Design of Materials

The direct conversion of methane to methanol in a stepwise process over copper-exchanged zeolites is currently one of the most-studied reactions. Despite these studies and the partial identification of the active species and reaction mechanism, it has not been possible to design the best material and determine the ideal process conditions for industrial implementation. This study shows how to design a significantly better performing material and the reaction parameters to enhance the methanol yield. This led to the highest methanol productivity to date, using a material that until recently considered to be inactive, opening an original direction for the design of active materials. It is shown that the zeolite framework affects the structure and redox properties of copper species, formed during ion exchange and treatment procedures, favoring formation of copper isolated sites in CuBEA and CuFAU and copper oligomers in CuMFI and CuMOR. In turn, these CuII-oxo species demonstrate different redox properties, ...