Photodriven Methane Conversion on Transition Metal Oxide Catalyst: Recent Progress and Prospects

Abstract

Methane as the main component in natural gas is a promising chemical raw material for synthesizing value‐added chemicals, but its harsh chemical conversion process often causes severe energy and environment concerns. Photocatalysis provides an attractive path to active and convert methane into various products under mild conditions with clean and sustainable solar energy, although many challenges remain at present. In this review, recent advances in photocatalytic methane conversion are systematically summarized. As the basis of methane conversion, the activation of methane is first elucidated from the structural basis and activation path of methane molecules. The study is committed to categorizing and elucidating the research progress and the laws of the intricate methane conversion reactions according to the target products, including photocatalytic methane partial oxidation, reforming, coupling, combustion, and functionalization. Advanced photocatalytic reactor designs are also designed to enrich the options and reliability of photocatalytic methane conversion performance evaluation. The challenges and prospects of photocatalytic methane conversion are also discussed, which in turn offers guidelines for methane‐conversion‐related photocatalyst exploration, reaction mechanism investigation, and advanced photoreactor design.

Red-Light-Based Effective Photocatalysis of a Photosensitive Covalent Organic Framework Triggered Singlet Oxygen

“…Meanwhile, the utilization of photocatalysts that can be initiated by low-energy red light in photochemical procedures offers the opportunity to render organic reactions under mild conditions, dampening undesired side reactions and offering a broad substrate scope and good functional group tolerance. There have been many reports on photocatalytic organic transformations, due to the main reason that photocatalysis is a process that harnesses the energy of light to facilitate a chemical process, which is characterized by its green catalytic properties, rendering it highly valuable for research purposes. − Nevertheless, the light sources used in photocatalysis are mainly UV light and blue light. Therefore, developing red-light-based photocatalysts is still greatly significant.…”

Deciphering structural evolution of adsorbed ˙OH species on Zr-oxo nodes of UiO-66 to modulate methane hydroxylation

“…[1][2][3] It is highly desirable to develop an environmentally friendly route for methane direct conversion alternative to the multistage syngas procedure with high-energy consumption. [4][5][6][7][8][9] The direct selective oxidation of methane (DSOM) in a one-step process to high value-added oxygenates, such as methanol, has attracted considerable attention. 1,[10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] However, DSOM under mild reaction conditions remains a great challenge due to high dissociation energy, negligible electron affinity, large ionization energy, and inherently small polarizability of methane.…”

Ultrathin sillenite nanosheets with wide-spectrum response and high photocatalytic oxidation performance

“…Photocatalysis is a green technology capable of totally removing organic pollutants, splitting water into H 2 fuel, converting CO 2 into value-added compounds solely utilizing sunlight and photocatalysts, and driving methane conversion to higher hydrocarbons. 1–3 However, current photocatalysts suffer from the limitation of not fully utilizing a significant portion of sunlight. As the excitation wavelengths increase, the photon energy decreases, resulting in an insufficient driving force to effectively separate and transfer the photogenerated electrons and holes.…”