Roles of Zeolite Confinement and Cu–O–Cu Angle on the Direct Conversion of Methane to Methanol by [Cu2(μ-O)]2+-Exchanged AEI, CHA, AFX, and MFI Zeolites

Abstract

Recent interest in Cu-exchanged zeolite catalysts for methane hydroxylation has been broadened to small-pore Cu-zeolites such as Cu-SSZ-13 (Cu-CHA), Cu-SSZ-16 (Cu-AFX), and Cu-SSZ-39 (Cu-AEI), which were reported to produce more methanol per copper atom than the medium-pore Cu-ZSM-5 (Cu-MFI) and large-pore Cu-mordenite (Cu-MOR) zeolites do. To elucidate the nature of such fascinating catalytic activities, theoretical investigations based on density functional theory (DFT) were performed on the direct conversion of methane to methanol by [Cu2(μ-O)]2+-exchanged AEI, CHA, AFX, and MFI zeolites in periodic systems. DFT computational results show that the important activation energies for C–H bond dissociation by [Cu2(μ-O)]2+-AEI, -CHA, and -AFX zeolites are lower than those for [Cu2(μ-O)]2+-MFI zeolite. Moreover, the rate-determining methanol desorption and N2O decomposition by [2Cu]2+-AEI zeolite are also found to require low barriers, which renders [Cu2(μ-O)]2+-AEI zeolite highly active for the direct conve...