New Method Converts Greenhouse Gas Into Fuel

 Researchers successfully converted methane into methanol using light and scattered transition metals such as copper in a process known as photo-oxidation

• The reaction was the best achieved to date for converting methane gas into liquid fuel at ambient temperature and pressure (25 °C and 1 bar, respectively), according to a study published in the journal Chemical Communications.
• Methanol is vital in biodiesel production and the chemical industry in Brazil.

Photocatalysts

• In the laboratory, the scientists synthesized crystalline carbon nitride in the form of polyheptazine imide (PHI), using non-noble or earth-abundant transition metals, especially copper, to produce active visible-light photocatalyst.
• The copper-PHI catalyst generated a large volume of oxygenated liquid products, especially methanol (2,900 micromoles per gram of material, or µmol).
• They discovered the best catalyst and other conditions essential to the chemical reaction

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