Advances in Catalytic Activation and Transformations of Light Alkanes in the Presence of Oxygen

To develop efficient catalytic routes for the utilization of non-petroleum carbon resources such as coal,natural gas,coal-bed gas and biomass is of high strategic significance.Under this background,in recent years,the Catalysis Division of Xiamen University systematically performed fundamental research on the catalytic activation and selective transformations of light alkanes such as methane in the presence of oxygen.This review briefly summarizes the research advances on selective oxidations of methane,ethane and propane to formaldehyde,acetaldehyde and acrolein as well as the oxidative dehydrogenation of propane to propylene achieved in some research groups.These target reactions are highly challenging and have been approached from various aspects,including designing and preparing heterogeneous and homogeneous catalysts,establishing structure-performance relationships,characterizing active oxygen species and reaction mechanisms,and theoretical modeling.