Photo-assisted thermal catalysis for methanol synthesis from methane oxidation on Cu-MOR/g-C3N4

Methanol synthesis from methane oxidation at low reaction temperature on Cu-zeolites is a hot topic recently. However, methanol yield is low due to the high energy barrier of methane activation. In this work, we tried to study photothermal catalysis for methanol synthesis from methane oxidation by using O2 as the oxidant on Cu-MOR/g-C3N4, in which g-C3N4 is an absorbent under visible light. Methanol synthesis from methane oxidation on Cu-MOR/g-C3N4 is photoassisted thermal catalysis. The maximum methanol yield under visible light is 3.09 μmol h−1 gcat−1 at the reaction temperature of 200 ℃, 1 atm and 24/3/8 CH4/O2/H2O, which is 1.85 times by thermal catalysis. The reason is that the interaction between Cu-MOR and g-C3N4 is conducive to methanol formation. On the other hand, part of O2 is reduced to O2− on g-C3N4 under visible light, and the oxidation capacity of O2− is greater than of O2. The result will be useful for the design of methanol synthesis from methane oxidation at low reaction temperature.