Selective methane oxidation over promoted oxide catalysts. Quarterly report, June 1 - August 31, 1996

Further data analysis for the conversion of methane to oxygenates over high surface are V{sub 2}O{sub 5}/SiO{sub 2} xerogel catalysts that were synthesized by a sol-gel process have been carried out. As previously described the vanadia loading of the catalysts was varied between 0-25 wt%. Turnover numbers (T.O.N.) have been calculated for methane conversion to products and for the synthesis of methanol and formaldehyde, where T.O.N. is defined as molecules converted or formed per dispersed tetrahedrally coordinated vanadium atom ad determined by {sup 51}V NMR analyses. It is found that highly dispersed tetrahedrally coordinated V{sup 5+} is the active site for the selective conversion of methane to methanol and formaldehyde