Oxidative methylation of organic compounds with methane over alkali promoted MgO catalysts Original Research Article

The oxidative methylation of acetone, acetophenone and diphenylmethane with methane has been investigated over sodium, cesium and sodium-cesium promoted magnesia catalysts at 750°C and under normal atmospheric pressure. All these compounds do react with methane and produce their corresponding methane coupling products. The bialkali (5 mol-% Na-5 mol-% Cs) promoted MgO catalyst provided higher product yields than the individual mono-alkali promoted MgO catalysts at the same alkali content of 10 mol-%.