Selective Oxidation of Methane to Methanol over Au/H-MOR.

Selective oxidation of methane to methanol by dioxygen (O) is an appealing route for upgrading abundant methane resource and represents one of the most challenging reactions in chemistry due to the overwhelmingly higher reactivity of the product (methanol) versus the reactant (methane). Here, we report that gold nanoparticles dispersed on mordenite efficiently catalyze the selective oxidation of methane to methanol by molecular oxygen in aqueous medium in the presence of carbon monoxide. The methanol productivity reaches 1300 μmol g h or 280 mmol g h with 75% selectivity at 150 °C, outperforming most catalysts reported under comparable conditions.

Neighboring Zn-Zr Sites in a Metal-Organic Framework for CO Hydrogenation.

ZrZnO is active in catalyzing carbon dioxide (CO) hydrogenation to methanol (MeOH) via a synergy between ZnO and ZrO. Here we report the construction of Zn-O-Zr sites in a metal-organic framework (MOF) to reveal insights into the structural requirement for MeOH production. The Zn-O-Zr sites are obtained by postsynthetic treatment of Zr(μ-O)(μ-OH) nodes of MOF-808 by ZnEt and a mild thermal treatment to remove capping ligands and afford exposed metal sites for catalysis.

Tailored Design of Differently Modified Mesoporous Materials To Deeply Understand the Adsorption Mechanism for Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons.

A series of SBA-15 with different modifications have been successfully prepared and applied as adsorbents to remove polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) from aqueous solutions. The morphology and structural properties of the chemically modified materials are all similar to those of pure SBA-15, and thus the difference of PAHs adsorption capacity can be directly attributed to the different functional groups, which is favorable to deeply explore the adsorption mechanism. Adsorption kinetics and isotherm experiments for naphthalene (Nap), anthracene (Ant), and pyrene (Pyr) were carried out, and the results reveal that the adsorption processes follow a pseudo-second-order rate equation and the equilibrium can be achieved within 120 min for Nap and Ant, whereas only 90 min for Pyr, indicating that the more hydrophobic molecules, the easier and faster adsorption can be obtained.