Abstract:

The reactivity of atomic metal cations toward CH₄ has been extensively investigated over the past decades. Closed-shell metal cations in electronically ground states are usually inert with CH₄ under thermal collision conditions because of the extremely high stability of methane. With the elevation of collision energies, closed-shell atomic gold cations (Au⁺) have been reported to react with CH₄ under single-collision conditions to produce AuCH₂⁺, AuH⁺, and AuCH₃⁺ species. Further investigations found that the ion-source-generated AuCH₂⁺ cations can react with CH₄ to synthesize C―C coupling products. These previous studies suggested that new products for the reaction of Au⁺ with CH₄ can be identified under multiple-collision conditions with sufficient collision energies. However, the reported ion-molecule reactions involving methane were usually performed under single- or multiple-collision conditions with thermal collision energies. In this study, a new reactor composed of a drift tube and ion funnel is constructed and coupled with a homemade reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometer. Laser-ablation-generated Au⁺ ions are injected into the reactor and drift 120 mm to react with methane seeded in the helium drift gas. The reaction products and unreacted Au⁺ ions are focused through the ion funnel and accumulate through a linear ion trap and are then detected by a mass spectrometer. In the reactor, the pressure is approximately 100 Pa, and the electric field between the drift tube and ion funnel can regulate the collision energies between ions and molecules. The reaction of the closed-shell atomic Au⁺ cation with CH₄ is investigated, and the C―C coupling product AuC₂H₄⁺ is observed under multiple-collision conditions with elevated collision energies. Density functional theory calculations are performed to understand the mechanism of the coupling reaction (Au⁺+ 2CH₄ → AuC₂H₄⁺ + 2H₂). Two pathways involving Au―CH₂ and Au―CH₃ species can separately mediate the C―C coupling process. The activation of the second C―H bond in each process requires additional energy to overcome the relatively high barrier (2.07 and 2.29 eV). Ion-trajectory simulations under multiple-collision conditions are then conducted to determine the collisional energy distribution in the reactor. These simulations confirmed that the electric fields between the drift tube and ion funnel could supply sufficient center-of-mass kinetic energies to facilitate the C―C coupling process to form AuC₂H₄⁺. The following catalytic cycle could then be postulated: $\mathrm{AuC}_{2} \mathrm{H}_{4}^{+}+\mathrm{CH}_{4} \stackrel{\Delta}{\longrightarrow} \mathrm{AuCH}_{4}^{+}+\mathrm{C}_{2} \mathrm{H}_{4}, \mathrm{AuCH}_{4}^{+}+\mathrm{CH}_{4} \stackrel{\Delta}{\longrightarrow} \mathrm{AuC}_{2} \mathrm{H}_{4}^{+}+2 \mathrm{H}_{2}$, and $\mathrm{CH}_{4} \stackrel{\mathrm{Au}^{+}, \Delta}{\longrightarrow} \mathrm{C}_{2} \mathrm{H}_{4}+2 \mathrm{H}_{2}$. Thus, this study enriches the chemistry of both gold and methane.

Key words: Gold, Methane, Ion-molecule reaction, C―C coupling, Mass spectrometry