Chem 278: Dr. Jiao Deng

“Ambient Electrochemical Functionalization of Methane with d0 early transition metal-oxo species” 

Abstract: The abundant yet widely distributed methane (CH4) resources demands an efficient conversion of CH4 into liquid chemicals at ambient conditions with minimal infrastructure support. In the existing approaches of metal-catalyzed reactions and catalysis based on free-radical chain mechanism, the reactivities of the former metal species seem insufficient to achieve ambient activation of CH4 and the latter radical species are uneasy to be sustainably replenished. This talk will show that a controlled electrochemical generation of oxygen radicals on the ligands binding to d0 early transition metal centers is capable to address the above-mentioned challenge, given the electrochemical redox process provides a sustained method of replenishing radical species at ambient conditions without sacrificing their high reactivities. This proposed mechanism represents a new scalable approach that helps mitigate the flaring or direct emission of natural gas at remote locations.