Identification of Reaction Intermediates and Mechanistic Understandings of Methane Oxidation over Hematite: A Combined Experimental and Theoretical Study.

Effective methane utilization for either clean power generation or value-added chemical production has been a subject of growing attention worldwide for decades, yet challenges persist mostly in relation to methane activation under mild conditions. Here, we report hematite, an earth-abundant material, to be highly effective and thermally stable to catalyze methane combustion at low temperatures (<500 °C) with a low light-off temperature of 230 °C and 100% selectivity to CO. The reported performance is impressive and comparable to those of precious-metal-based catalysts, with a low apparent activation energy of 17.