Tuning Hydrophilicity and Active Sites of Fe-ZIF-8 to Enhance Methane-to-Formic Acid Conversion under Mild Conditions.

Authors

Haijie Yu, Qitong Zhao, Renhui Ling, Heng Huang, Jiayi Peng, Yueyue Tang, Yixuan Gong, Zhongxiao Zhou, Xiao Li, Jianjian Wang

Published in

Inorganic chemistry. Volume 65. Issue 36. Pages 20967-20975. Sep 14, 2026.

Abstract

Direct selective oxidation of methane to formic acid (HCOOH) under mild conditions remains a major challenge. Here, we reported a surfactant-assisted in situ modification strategy that tuned the surface hydrophilicity and Fe active sites of Fe-ZIF-8. Among the three surfactants investigated, C16-modified FZ@C16 exhibited the lowest hydrophilicity and the highest proportion of mononuclear Fe species while preserving the ZIF-8 framework integrity. The moderately hydrophobic surface enhanced CH4 adsorption and local enrichment near active sites, improving the utilization efficiency of •OH radicals generated from H2O2 activation. Consequently, FZ@C16 achieved a HCOOH yield of 54.1 μmol with a TOF of 75 h-1 and a selectivity of 93.9% at 50 °C under 3 MPa CH4, surpassing previously reported MOF-based catalysts. This work demonstrates that surface wettability regulation offers a feasible promising strategy for designing non-noble metal catalysts for methane oxidation.

PMID:
42734389
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 14 Sep 2026.

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