Anaerobic oxidation of methane

Catalysis

Organic chemistry

Inorganic chemistry

Chemistry

Zeolite

Methanol

Peroxide

Methane

Hydrogen peroxide

Photochemistry

Science

Confining peroxide to make methanol In principle, hydrogen peroxide would be an efficient oxidant for the conversion of methane to methanol under mild conditions. In practice, however, it is currently too expensive to produce the peroxide ahead of time for this purpose. Jin et al. report a catalyst system that generates and concentrates hydrogen peroxide for immediate reaction with methane. A hydrophobically coated zeolite keeps the peroxide close to the gold and palladium active site, where incoming methane is then selectively oxidized to methanol. Science , this issue p. 193

Hydrophobic zeolite modification for in situ peroxide formation in methane oxidation to methanol