Combinatorial chemistry in the investigation of selective oxidation catalysts for lower alkanes

摘要

Selective oxidation of lower alkanes is a keytechnology for the utilization of natural gas as a chemical resource.It is difficult to control the oxidation due to the stable C-H bondof lower alkanes. Although there are many theoreticalconsiderations for the selective oxidation catalysts, we have notfound commercially available one. Combinatorial method shouldbe applied for the systematic investigation of the catalysts. Highthroughput screening has not been reported for the selectiveoxidation catalysts giving oxygenate product due to the difficultyin product analysis. Oxygenated is an origin of odors in livelihood.The sensors developed for odors are selective for oxygenate.Screening of selective oxidation catalysts was carried out by thegas sensor system which consists of odor-sensor, potentiometricCO sensor and nondis-persive IR CO_2 sensor. The sensor systemenables the screening of propane oxidation catalysts 20 timesfaster than conventional GC system. We also used photoacousticspectros-copy (PAS) as the high throughput screening on ethane oxidation.