One-Step Synthesis of Methanol from CH₄ and CO₂ by a Plasma Synergistic Catalyst

Direct conversion of CH4 and CO2 into liquid products such as methanol and ethanol at room temperature and pressure is of great significance and presents considerable challenges. Water-cooled dielectric barrier reactor (DBD) is a very promising technology. It can not only effectively activate CH4 and CO2 at room temperature and pressure but also reduce the temperature of the reaction zone and increase the life of free radicals. By the addition of appropriate catalysts, the distribution of liquid products can be precisely regulated, so as to achieve the goal of direct conversion of CH4 and CO2 into liquid products. Iron is an ideal choice for catalyst design due to its excellent CO2 activation and OH radical enrichment ability. In this article, we designed a highly active Fe2O3/g-C3N4 catalyst for the one-step conversion of CH4/CO2 into liquid products in a DBD reactor. The conversion of CH4 and CO2 can reach 22% and 18%, respectively, and the selectivity of the liquid product can reach 40.1%. In liquid products, the selectivity of alcohol liquid products can reach 35%, of which methanol can reach 24.4%, which is higher than the 11.9% reported in the literature.