Dioxygen dissociation over man-made system at room temperature to form the active α-oxygen for methane oxidation
Edyta Tábor, Jiřı́ Dědeček, Kinga Mlekodaj, Zdeněk Sobalı́k, Prokopis C. Andrikopoulos, Štěpán Sklenák
Abstract
] exhibits unique oxidation properties reflected in an outstanding activity in the oxidation of methane to methanol at room temperature. Designing a man-made system that mimicks the enzyme functionality in the dioxygen activation using both a different mechanism and structure of the active site represents a breakthrough in catalysis. Our system has an enormous practical importance as a potential industrial catalyst for methane utilization because (i) the Fe(II)/Fe(IV) cycle is reversible, (ii) the active Fe centers are stable under the reaction conditions, and (iii) methanol can be released to gas phase without the necessity of water or water-organic medium extraction.