Fig. 2: Electrochemical functionalization of CH4 and natural gas mixture.
From: Ambient methane functionalization initiated by electrochemical oxidation of a vanadium (V)-oxo dimer
a, b Cyclic voltammograms (a) and 1H NMR spectra of liquid samples after 6-h electrolysis (b) for 10 mM 1 in 1-bar CH4 (red), 10 mM 1 in 1-bar N2 (blue), and blanks without 1 (black). Dashed blue, current density (j) of blue trace magnified by a factor of 10. *, internal standard acetic acid. c 13C NMR spectra of samples before (black) and after electrolysis with 13CH4 (red) and CH4 of natural abundance (blue), respectively. d Calculated TONs (red) and electric charges passed (blue) versus the duration of electrolysis. e F.E. of CH4 functionalization in 10 mM 1 vs. electrode potential E under 1-bar N2 (green), 1-bar CH4 (blue) and 3-bar CH4 (red). f Cumulative TONs for C1 (red), C2 (green, multiplied by a factor of 5), and C3 products (black, multiplied by a factor of 50) as well as F.E. values of total liquid products (blue) are plotted against the duration of bulk electrolysis. TON values for CH3OSO3H (red), CH3COOH plus C2H5OSO3H (green), and CH3COCH3 (black) within 240 h are shown on the right, respectively. Natural gas mixture supplied by SoCalGas was used as the substrate at ambient pressure. Trace products beyond C3 were also observed. 100 mV s−1 and Pt working electrode in (a); FTO working electrode in (b) to (f), and E = 2.255 V vs. Hg2SO4/Hg in (b) to (d), and (f).
