Improved Catalytic Activity and Stability of Ba Substituted SrTiO3 Perovskite for Oxidative Coupling of Methane

Abstract

AbstractPerovskite oxides are widely used as the catalyst for oxidative coupling of methane (OCM). The partial substitution of A or B sites in ABO3 perovskites with heteroatoms was effective in improving the catalytic performance, but the promoting mechanism has not been thoroughly studied. In this work, the partial substitution of Sr with Ba in SrTiO3 perovskite was demonstrated to improve both the OCM reaction activity and stability. Compared with SrTiO3 and BaTiO3, the crystal size of Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 was greatly reduced (∼55 nm), the amount of surface chemisorbed oxygen species acting as the alkaline active centers for OCM was increased, and the electrophilic lattice oxygens with higher electronegativity rapidly replenishing the surface alkaline active sites were obtained. Thereby, a higher C2 yield (∼18 %) and C2H4/C2H6 ratio (∼1.7) were simultaneously achieved. Furthermore, the enhanced reaction stability was attributed to the better thermal resistance of nano‐sized Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 perovskite.