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Title: Selective electrochemical oxidative coupling of methane mediated by Sr2Fe1.5Mo0.5O6-δ and its chemical stability
Abstract

Efficient conversion of methane to value-added products such as olefins and aromatics has been in pursuit for the past few decades. The demand has increased further due to the recent discoveries of shale gas reserves. Oxidative and non-oxidative coupling of methane (OCM and NOCM) have been actively researched, although catalysts with commercially viable conversion rates are not yet available. Recently,$${{{{{{{\mathrm{Sr}}}}}}}}_2Fe_{1.5 + 0.075}Mo_{0.5}O_{6 - \delta }$$Sr2Fe1.5+0.075Mo0.5O6δ(SFMO-075Fe) has been reported to activate methane in an electrochemical OCM (EC-OCM) set up with a C2 selectivity of 82.2%1. However, alkaline earth metal-based materials are known to suffer chemical instability in carbon-rich environments. Hence, here we evaluated the chemical stability of SFMO in carbon-rich conditions with varying oxygen concentrations at temperatures relevant for EC-OCM. SFMO-075Fe showed good methane activation properties especially at low overpotentials but suffered poor chemical stability as observed via thermogravimetric, powder XRD, and XPS measurements where SrCO3was observed to be a major decomposition product along with SrMoO3and MoC. Nevertheless, our study demonstrates that electrochemical methods could be used to selectively activate methane towards partial oxidation products such as ethylene at low overpotentials while higher applied biases result in the complete oxidation of methane to carbon dioxide and water.

 
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Award ID(s):
1647722
NSF-PAR ID:
10304873
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Nature Publishing Group
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Communications Chemistry
Volume:
4
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2399-3669
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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