Novel glass crystal catalysts for the processes of methane oxidation

Novel catalysts were prepared from magnetic microspheres and cenosphere rec overed from fuel ashes being formed in combustion of Irsha-Borodinskii lign ite and Kuznetskii coal. The specific features of microsphere formation in the coal combustion were discussed. The morphology as well as composition o f different magnetic microspheres and cenospheres were studied by SEM, elec tron probe microanalysis and Mossbauer spectroscopy. The morphology of glob ules, crystallite size and defect structure of active phase was established to depend on the basicity of the glass phase. It was shown that catalytic activity of magnetic microspheres and cenosopheres in the reaction of deep oxidation of methane is determined by the spinel phase and depends on the e xtent of its accessibility and type of defect structure. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.