Methane undergoes highly facile C–H bond cleavage on the stoichiometric IrO2(110) surface. From temperature-programmed reaction spectroscopy experiments, we found that methane molecularly adsorbed as a strongly bound σ complex on IrO2(110) and that a large fraction of the adsorbed complexes underwent C–H bond cleavage at temperatures as low as 150 kelvin (K). The initial dissociation probability of methane on IrO2(110) decreased from 80 to 20% with increasing surface temperature from 175 to 300 K. We estimate that the activation energy for methane C–H bond cleavage is 9.5 kilojoule per mole (kJ/mol) lower than the binding energy of the adsorbed precursor on IrO2(110), and equal to a value of ~28.5 kJ/mol. Low-temperature activation may avoid unwanted side reactions in the development of catalytic processes to selectively convert methane to value-added products.
Science 21 Apr 2017:
Vol. 356, Issue 6335, pp. 299-303
DOI: 10.1126/science.aam9147
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/356/6335/299
