Catalytic conversion of C1 molecules under mild conditions

C1 catalysis based on the transformation of methane, carbon monoxide, methanol and carbon dioxide offers great potential for the sustainable production of fuels and chemicals in response to the decrease of the energy consumption and plant maintenance. While the relatively inert nature of C-H and C-O bond (e.g., methane and carbon dioxide) and uncontrollable coupling of C-C bond render the selective activation and controllable transformation of C1 molecules to high-value-added products challenging in C1 chemistry. Catalytic conversion of C1 energy molecules under mild conditions enables a better control of the selectivity of the desired products, however, which requires highly active catalysts to lower the reaction energy barriers. Besides designing efficient catalysts to promote C1 molecules conversion, employing electro-catalysis and photo-catalysis to circumvent the thermodynamic limitations is regarded as promising ways for C1 catalysis at low temperatures. Benefiting from the advanced technology for catalyst synthesis, reactor design, mechanism understanding, catalytic conversion of C1 molecules under mild conditions has made significant progress from 2010 to 2020. In this review, we summarized the typical catalytic processes and representative catalysts for transforming methane, carbon monoxide, methanol and carbon dioxide into high value-added chemicals with a reaction temperatures below 200 degrees C driven by thermo-catalysis, electro-catalysis, and photo-catalysis. Besides, a short perspective is offered to highlight possible future research directions towards C1 molecules conversion under mild conditions. It is expected to provide a useful reference for the readers to design better catalysts and reaction process for mild conversion of C1 molecules efficiently in future.

Automated summary

C1 catalysis offers great potential for sustainable production of fuels and chemicals, but challenges remain in selectively activating and transforming C1 molecules due to the inert nature of certain bonds. Utilizing efficient catalysts under mild conditions can improve selectivity, while electro-catalysis and photo-catalysis offer promising ways to overcome thermodynamic limitations. Advances in catalyst synthesis, reactor design, and mechanism understanding have driven significant progress in C1 molecule conversion under mild conditions from 2010 to 2020.