Iron Oxide Clusters as Electron Donors Under Light Enhance Oxygen Reduction Kinetics at Atomically Dispersed Fe for Photocatalytic CH4 Partial Oxidation.

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Photocatalytic CH4 oxidation to CH3OH emerges as a promising strategy to sustainably utilize natural gas and mitigate the greenhouse effect. However, there remains a significant challenge for the synthesis of methanol by using O2 at low temperature. Inspired by the catalytic structure in soluble methane monooxygenase (MMO) and the corresponding reaction mechanism, we prepared a biomimetic photocatalyst with the decoration of Fe2O3 nanoclusters and satellite Fe single atoms immobilized on carbon nitride. The catalyst demonstrates an excellent CH3OH productivity of 5.02 mmol ⋅ gcat -1 ⋅ h-1 with CH3OH selectivity of 98.5 %. Mechanism studies reveal that the synergy between Fe2O3 nanoclusters and Fe single atoms establishes a dual-Fe site as MMO for O2 activation and subsequent CH4 partial oxidation. Moreover, the light excitation of Fe2O3 nanoclusters with a relative narrow band gap could deliver the electrons and protons to atomic Fe that facilitating the oxygen reduction kinetics for the robust of CH3OH synthesis.