Au pairs: Whereas one methane molecule is not dehydrogenated by free gold-dimer cations, the cooperative interaction of two methane ligands initiates a catalytic formation of ethylene. The cycle is closed by the adsorption of a third methane molecule that cooperatively activates the release of ethylene (see scheme yellow Au, green C, blue H). This cycle is derived from ab initio calculations and gas-phase reaction kinetics measurements.
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Lang et al. (2010) studied this question.
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