Copper catalyzed selective methane oxidation to acetic acid using O.

The direct transformation of methane into C oxygenates such as acetic acid selectively using molecular oxygen (O) is a significant challenge due to the chemical inertness of methane, the difficulty of methane C-H bond activation/C-C bond coupling and the thermodynamically favored over-oxidation. In this study, we have successfully developed a porous aluminium metal-organic framework (MOF)-supported single-site mono-copper(ii) hydroxyl catalyst [MIL-53(Al)-Cu(OH)], which is efficient in directly oxidizing methane to acetic acid in water at 175 °C with a remarkable selectivity using only O. This heterogeneous catalyst achieved an exceptional acetic acid productivity of 11 796 mmol mol h in 9.