| Abstract |
The study of the partial oxidation of methane (POM) over KCl-LnCl(3) (Ln = La, Ce, Sm, Dy, Yb) eutectic molten salts was undertaken. The reaction main products were hydrocarbons (primarily C2, selectivity >70\%). The formation of hydrogen was never detected. The catalytic performance is clearly dependent on the rare earth ions properties and the factors that seem to contribute to the variation of the activity and selectivity along the lanthanide series are the mobility and the oxidative character of the rare earth trivalent ions in the potassium chloride molten melt. The activity increases with the molten salts eutetic melting temperatures and the selectivity to hydrocarbons decreases with the oxidative character of rare earth ions. To our knowledge, this is the first time that POM was studied over chloride base rare earth molten salts. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. |
