Promoting CH₄ photoconversion by reconstruction of polaron states.

Authors

Shuya Hao, Yuanyuan Xue, Ximeng Lv, Chen Peng, Ruilin Wei, Huining Wang, Qing Han, Gengfeng Zheng

Published in

Science advances. Volume 12. Issue 44. Pages eaej4630. Oct 30, 2026. Epub Oct 28, 2026.

Abstract

Selective oxidation of methane (CH₄) has attractive potentials for mitigating global warming and producing value-added chemicals, while the activation of highly inert CH₄ remains challenging. Herein, we developed a single-atomic Pt-doped WO₃ (Pt₁-WO₃) catalyst, which enabled to reconstruct polaron states from W to Pt-O sites. This polaron reconstruction allows for fast separation of photogenerated charge carriers and tuning of reactant adsorption sites, and greatly improves the photocatalytic CH₄ activation and conversion efficiency. Under 150 mW·cm^-2 light intensity and aqueous conditions, the Pt₁-WO₃ photocatalyst exhibited a peak CH₄-to-CH₃OH conversion yield of 1151 μmol·g_cat^-1·h^-1 without the use of photosensitizers, sacrificial reagents or strong oxidizers like O₂ or H₂O₂, exceeding the previous reports on photocatalytic CH₄ oxidation under similar conditions, thus suggesting the capability of tuning polaron states for enhanced photocatalysis.

PMID:
42950032
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 29 Oct 2026.

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