Methane is the most stable of all hydrocarbons, challenging the intrinsic activity of a catalyst. The effective use of methane as a raw material for industrial processing remains one of the long standing problems in catalysis and the elimination of methane and other hydrocarbons from exhaust emissions is of interest due to environmental
concerns.

Reinhard Schomäcker, Technical University of Berlin, Germany, and colleagues demonstrate high activities in CH₄ oxidation of perosvkite type catalysts they prepared in a facile and rapid preparation method.

The perovskite type catalysts were prepared using the cellulose templating method (CT), providing a high crystallinity at low phase transformation temperatures. The method is advantageous for the rapid synthesis of laboratory amounts of various perovskitetype materials with surface areas higher than 10 m²g^–1. Small crystallite sizes are conserved as a result of relatively low calcination temperatures, which are required to yield pure phase solids.

The catalytic performances obtained with SrCoO_x and LaCoO_x range between conventionally prepared perovskites and well-developed high surface area perovskites exhibiting a good compromise with regard to the facile preparation method.

• Methane Activation over Cellulose Templated Perovskite Catalysts,
  Kirsten Langfeld, René Marschner, Benjamin Frank, Reinhard Schomäcker
  ChemCatChem 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201100033