EPSD Colloquium

Biological methanotrophs uniquely consume methane in the natural world with high efficiency, harvesting methane, and using its chemical energy with ease. Artificial methanotrophy, a bioinspired mimic, remains a difficult science challenge limited by materials and processes that can selectively produce valued carbon products directly from methane. As the primary component of natural gas, converting methane (CH4), particularly in stranded locations, into liquid oxygenates (e.g. methanol, formic acid, methyl peroxide) can offer incentives for domestic natural gas utilization, transportation, storage and capitalization1. However, despite numerous breakthroughs in materials/process design, liquid oxygenate yields from CH4 remain low, and poor selectivity hinders activity of most catalysts2. To overcome these barriers, we have studied, then engineered new materials to optimize the fundamental steps associated with well-defined surface systems that offer facile C-H bond breaking and selective production of CH3OH or other liquid oxygenates. We have translated that knowledge to two prototype powder catalysts, Pd-iC-CeO2 4 and activated molybdenum disulfide (MoS2)5, that selectively produce unitary liquid oxygenates from methane in the presence of dilute hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) at low temperatures. I will talk about these material systems in detail and describe the use of synchrotron-based in situ X-ray, IR vibrational probes and Electron Paramagnetic Resonance spectroscopy to decipher the key descriptions at the gas-solid liquid interface critical for product selectivity4.I will also describe our road map for translating these basic science discoveries towards applied targets and achieving associated technology transfer. 1. S.D. Senanayake, et al. Accounts of Chemical Research 2020 53 (8), 1488-1497 2. Z. Liu, et al. Science 2020, 368 (6490), 513-517. 3. J. D. Jiménez, et al., ACS Catal. 2022, 12 (20), 12809-12822. 4. J. D. Jiménez, et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2024, 146 (38), 25986-25999. 5. S. L. Farrell et al. Adv. Funct. Mater. 2026, In press. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy under contract No. DE-SC0012704.