Mn/TiO Catalysts for the High-Yield Partial Oxidation of Methane with Molecular Oxygen to a Methyl Ester.

We synthesize and evaluate a diverse range of Mn/TiO catalysts with varying physical and redox properties for the methane-to-methyl-ester reaction using molecular oxygen in a diluted acid medium (10 wt% trifluoroacetic acid). Despite initial differences in manganese distributions, nearly all catalysts are active under the reaction conditions, and the degree of activity is partially correlated to catalyst reducibility in hydrogen temperature programmed reduction and manganese K-edge X-ray absorption spectroscopy. Under methane-limited conditions, exceptionally high product yields of up to ca.