<\/p>\n
<\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and their collaborators have demonstrated a promising new approach for converting methane\u2014the primary component of natural gas\u2014into liquid chemicals that are precursors for many industrial chemicals and fuels. The research, described in a paper just <a href=\"https:\/\/advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/10.1002\/adfm.76526\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Advanced Functional Materials<\/i>, shows how molybdenum disulfide (MoS<sub>2<\/sub>), an earth-abundant industrial catalyst, can be used with minimal tweaking to selectively convert methane into methyl peroxide and other liquid oxygenate compounds at temperatures below 100\u00b0C (212\u00b0F). Methyl peroxide is a precursor for making methanol, an energy-dense liquid fuel that can be transported easily.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe fact that this catalyst is an earth-abundant, domestically sourced material could change the game for converting natural gas into liquid chemicals,\u201d said Brookhaven Lab chemist Sanjaya Senanayake, a corresponding author on the publication. \u201cThe catalyst achieves very high yields and high specificity for making important precursors for methanol and a wide range of other industrial processes.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project is part of a long-term strategy of the Catalysis: Reactivity and Structure group in Brookhaven Lab\u2019s Chemistry Division to develop methane-conversion catalysts and processes. This group includes co-authors Senanayake, chemist Juan Jim\u00e9nez and research associate Arephin Islam\u2014all co-authors on the new publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Scientists at the U.S. Department of Energy\u2019s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory and their collaborators have demonstrated a promising new approach for converting methane\u2014the primary component of natural gas\u2014into liquid chemicals that are precursors for many industrial chemicals and fuels. The research, described in a paper just published in Advanced Functional Materials, shows how molybdenum disulfide [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,1497],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-240067","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chemistry","category-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240067","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240067"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240067\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240067"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240067"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240067"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}