Au-ZSM-5 catalyses the selective oxidation of CH4 to CH3OH and CH3COOH using O2

The oxidation of methane, the main component of natural gas, to selectively form oxygenated chemical feedstocks using molecular oxygen has been a long-standing grand challenge in catalysis. Here, using gold nanoparticles supported on the zeolite ZSM-5, we introduce a method to oxidize methane to methanol and acetic acid in water at temperatures between 120 and 240 °C using molecular oxygen in the absence of any added coreductant. Electron...