Sustainable methane utilization technology via photocatalytic halogenation with alkali halides

Abstract

Methyl halides are versatile platform molecules, which have been widely adopted as precursors for producing value-added chemicals and fuels. Despite their high importance, the green and economical synthesis of the methyl halides remains challenging. Here we demonstrate sustainable and efficient photocatalytic methane halogenation for methyl halide production over copper-doped titania using alkali halides as a widely available and noncorrosive halogenation agent. This approach affords a methyl halide production rate of up to 0.61 mmol h−1 m−2 for chloromethane or 1.08 mmol h−1 m−2 for bromomethane with a stability of 28 h, which are further proven transformable to methanol and pharmaceutical intermediates. Furthermore, we demonstrate that such a reaction can also operate solely using seawater and methane as resources, showing its high practicability as general technology for offshore methane exploitation. This work opens an avenue for the sustainable utilization of methane from various resources and toward designated applications.

A nonmetallic plasmonic catalyst for photothermal CO2 flow conversion with high activity, selectivity and durability

“…Then the chamber was purged with Ar flow for 30 min. The spectrum was collected as a background spectrum 56 . During the in-situ characterization, CO 2 /H 2 mixture gas was continually introduced into the chamber at 250 °C under visible light irradiation conditions.…”

Spin Polarization: A New Frontier in Efficient Photocatalysis for Environmental Purification and Energy Conversion

“…With the growing global population and industrial expansion, [1] both energy crisis and environmental pollution are increasingly worsening, [2] and the development of photocatalytic technologies for environmental purification [3] and energy conversion [4] is of decision‐making significance for the sustainable development of humankind nowadays. Solar energy is regarded as the future energy storehouse due to the advantages of cleanliness, abundance, safety, and inexhaustibility of solar energy, [5] however, it is difficult to utilize it directly owing to its low density and intermittency.…”

Energy-efficient and eco-friendly continuous production of 5-CMF in a UV-ultrasound irradiated catalytic packed bed reactor: heterogeneous kinetics, reactor simulation and LCA analysis

“…[8][9][10] Recently, some works on the photocatalytic chlorination of organic substances and photoactivation of organic chlorides have been reported. 11 For instance, Ma et al 12 successfully produced methyl chloride using an alkyl chloride salt as the chlorine source under the copper-doped TiO 2 photocatalytic system. So, in this study, an attempt was made to produce 5-CMF utilizing a photocatalyst (TiO 2 ) along with a solid acid co-catalyst (Smopex-101) from starch under mild reaction conditions, where choline chloride was used as the chlorine source.…”