Methane, an important carbon-based small molecule, is widely distributed in nature and is a major component of natural gas, shale gas, combustible ice, biogas, etc. So far, the use of methane is still dominated by combustion, which leads to the emission of large amounts of carbon dioxide. Methane is used as a chemical feedstock mainly for synthesis of ammonia, methanol and its derivatives, but its use accounts for only 5-7% of natural gas consumption. Although methane reserves far exceed those of petroleum, the extent of its exploitation as a chemical raw material is far from comparable to that of petroleum. How to transform the huge methane resources into fuels or chemical products with higher economic added value has important scientific significance and application prospects. Solar energy, as the most abundant and clean energy source, can drive the conversion of methane into multi-carbon fuels or chemicals under mild conditions by photocatalytic means. In recent years, the research team of Prof. Yujie Xiong and Prof. Ran Long at the University of Science and Technology of China has developed a series of photo/photocatalytic methods to achieve highly selective conversion of methane to ethane, ethylene and ethylene glycol (J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2021, 143, 269; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2021, 60, 9357).

Recently, the research team of Prof. Yujie Xiong and Prof. Ran Long, in collaboration with Associate Researcher Cenfeng Fu from the team of Academician Jinlong Yang at the University of Science and Technology of China and Prof. Yingfang Yao from the team of Academician Zhigang Zou at Nanjing University, developed a photocatalytic methane anaerobic coupling (NOCM) method to achieve highly selective preparation of ethane and hydrogen with efficiency reaching the level of medium-temperature thermocatalytic NOCM, which was published in the journal Nature × Communications (Nat. Commun. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-30532-z).

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