Enhancing Methane Aromatization Performance by Reducing the Particle Size of Molybdenum Oxide

Efficient use of natural gas to produce aromatics is an attractive subject; the process requires catalysts that possess high-performance active sites to activate stable C–H bonds. Here, we report a facile synthetic strategy to modify HMCM-49 with small molybdenum oxide nanoparticles. Due to the higher sublimability of nano-MoO(3) particles than commercial MoO(3), they more easily enter into the channels of HMCM-49 and associate with Brønsted acid sites to form active MoC(x)-type species under calcination and reaction conditions. Compared with commercial MoO(3) modified MCM-49, nano-MoO(3) modified MCM-49 exhibits higher methane conversion (13.2%), higher aromatics yield (9.1%), and better stability for the methane aromatization reaction.