Solar-Energy-Mediated Methane Conversion Over Nanometal and Semiconductor Catalysts (eBook)

This book demonstrates that solar energy, the most abundant and clean renewable energy, can be utilized to drive methane activation and conversion under mild conditions. The book reports that coupling solar energy and thermal energy can significantly enhance methane conversion at mild temperatures using plasmonic nanometal-based catalysts, with a substantial decrease in apparent activation energy of methane conversion. Furthermore, this book, for the first time, reports the direct photocatalytic methane oxidation into liquid oxygenates (methanol and formaldehyde) with only molecular oxygen in pure water at room temperature with high yield and selectivity over nanometals and semiconductors (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide). These findings are a big stride toward methane conversion and inspire researchers to develop strategies for efficient and selective conversion of methane to high-value-added chemicals under mild conditions.

Hui Song is a Postdoctoral Researcher at National Institute for Materials Science (NIMS), Japan. He received his bachelor's degree from Southwest Jiaotong University in 2013, Master's degree from Zhejiang University in 2016 and Ph.D. degree from Hokkaido University in 2019. His research interests mainly focus on exploring innovated and efficient catalysts for solar-powered catalytic conversion of small molecules including CH4, CO2, N2 and H2 to liquid fuels and value-added chemicals, developing new reaction pathways for more efficient utilization of C1 resources, and revealing these chemical reactions mechanism by various characterization methods. He was awarded the 'Best Poster' in the 22nd International Conference on Photochemical Conversion and Storage of Solar Energy (IPS-22) in 2018. He has published 13 papers as the first author in J. Am. Chem. Soc., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed., Nat. Commun. Joule, ACS Catal. and other journals. He has also published 6 Chinese patents and 2 Japanese patents.

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This book demonstrates that solar energy, the most abundant and clean renewable energy, can be utilized to drive methane activation and conversion under mild conditions. The book reports that coupling solar energy and thermal energy can significantly enhance methane conversion at mild temperatures using plasmonic nanometal-based catalysts, with a substantial decrease in apparent activation energy of methane conversion. Furthermore, this book, for the first time, reports the direct photocatalytic methane oxidation into liquid oxygenates (methanol and formaldehyde) with only molecular oxygen in pure water at room temperature with high yield and selectivity over nanometals and semiconductors (zinc oxide and titanium dioxide). These findings are a big stride toward methane conversion and inspire researchers to develop strategies for efficient and selective conversion of methane to high-value-added chemicals under mild conditions.