Methane Activation by a Mononuclear Copper Active Site in the Zeolite Mordenite: Effect of Metal Nuclearity on Reactivity

The direct conversion of methane to methanol would have a wide reaching environmental and industrial impact. Copper-containing zeolites can perform this reaction at low temperatures and pressures at a previously defined O-2-activated Cu2O](2+) site. However, after autoreduction of the copper-containing zeolite mordenite and removal of the [Cu2O](2+) active site, the zeolite is still methane reactive. In this study, we use diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy, magnetic circular dichroism, resonance Raman spectroscopy, electron paramagnetic resonance, and X-ray absorption spectroscopy to unambiguously define a mononuclear [CuOH](+) as the CH, reactive active site of the autoreduced zeolite. The rigorous identification of a mononuclear active site allows a reactivity comparison to the previously defined [Cu2O](2+) active site. We perform kinetic experiments to compare the reactivity of the [CuOH](+) and [Cu2O](2+) sites and find that the binuclear site is significantly more reactive. From the analysis of density functional theory calculations, we elucidate that this increased reactivity is a direct result of stabilization of the [Cu2OH](2+) H-atom abstraction product by electron delocalization over the two Cu cations via the bridging ligand. This significant increase in reactivity from electron delocalization over a binudear active site provides new insights for the design of highly reactive oxidative catalysts.

Automated summary

In this study, a mononuclear [CuOH](+) active site in the autoreduced zeolite was unambiguously defined, and its reactivity was compared to the previously defined [Cu2O](2+) active site. The increased reactivity of the binuclear site was attributed to electron delocalization over the two Cu cations via the bridging ligand.