LAUSR

Methane upgrading into more valuable chemicals has received much attention. Herein, we report oxidative methane conversion to ethane using gaseous O 2 at low temperatures (< 400 ˚C) and atmospheric pressure in a continuous reactor. A highly oxidized Pd deposited on ceria could produce ethane with the productivity as high as 0.84 mmol g cat -1 h -1 . The Pd-O-Pd sites, not Pd-O-Ce, were the active sites for the selective ethane production at low temperatures. Density functional theory calculations confirmed that Pd-O-Pd site is energetically more advantageous for C-C coupling whereas Pd-O-Ce prefers CH 4 dehydrogenation. The ceria helped Pd maintain highly oxidic state despite reductive CH 4 flow. This work can provide new insight for methane upgrading into C2 species.