Improving the methane aromatization activity and anti-carbon deposition on MCM-22 through nano α-MoO3 modification

Abstract

Natural gas is considered to be an important energy and hydrocarbon feedstock. To overcome the harmful combustion of natural gas and convert it to high-value-added products, the development of efficient and stable catalysts via methane dehydroaromatization (MDA) is needed. Here, we use nano α-MoO₃ to modify the MCM-22 zeolite for MDA, achieving a 13.3% methane conversion and a 9.1% yield of aromatics. Compared with commercial MoO₃, the α-MoO₃ modified MCM-22 possesses more Mo species in the zeolite pores, showing a higher catalytic activity, more MoC_x active sites during MDA, exhibiting a higher benzene selectivity, and fewer Brønsted acid sites, leading to a strong anti-carbon deposition ability.