Iron phosphate nanoparticle catalyst for direct oxidation of methane into formaldehyde: effect of surface redox and acid-base properties

The effect of various iron phosphate and oxide catalysts on the direct oxidation of methane (CH4) to formaldehyde (HCHO) with molecular oxygen (O-2) as the sole oxidant was studied using a fixed-bed flow reactor. Five crystalline iron-containing catalysts (FePO4, Fe3O3(PO4), Fe-4(P2O7)(3), Fe2P2O7, and alpha-Fe2O3) with different iron coordination geometries, iron oxidation states, and Fe/P ratios were synthesized by the sol-gel method using malic acid or aspartic acid. The Fe/P molar ratio had a significant effect on the oxidation catalysis; CH4 conversion increased with the Fe/P molar ratio, although the selectivity to HCHO decreased. Trigonal FePO4 nanoparticles synthesized by the malic acid-aided method with an Fe/P molar ratio of 1/1 exhibited the highest activity for the selective formation of HCHO among the catalysts tested, including FePO4 synthesized by a conventional method. Despite the much higher oxidizing ability of Fe2O3 than FePO4, the oxidation of CH4 using Fe2O3 resulted in the formation of only CO2. In contrast, the temperature-programmed reaction of FePO4 with CH4 gave Fe2P2O7 with the formation of HCHO as a primary product, and Fe2P2O7 reacted with O-2 to regenerate FePO4. Based on mechanistic studies including the catalyst effect, kinetics, pulse-reaction experiments, and IR spectroscopy, the bulk structural change between FePO4 and Fe2P2O7 is not involved during the catalysis and the surface redox and acid-base properties of FePO4 are considered to play an important role in CH4 oxidation with the structure preservation of bulk FePO4. The combination of redox-active Lewis acidic iron sites and weakly-basic phosphate units likely contributes to the C-H activation of CH4 and the suppression of complete oxidation to CO2, respectively.