Activation of Methane by Gaseous Metal Ions

Cold methane coupling: Recent experiments with trapped Au2+ clusters reveal a catalytic cycle for the dehydrogenative C–C coupling of methane to give ethene at temperatures between 200 and 300 K (see scheme). The key novelty of the work is the explicit exploration of the multicollisional regime, which represents an important step to bridge the pressure gap between model studies and real catalysis.