Promoting CH ₄ photoconversion by reconstruction of polaron states

Selective oxidation of methane (CH ₄ ) has attractive potentials for mitigating global warming and producing value-added chemicals, while the activation of highly inert CH ₄ remains challenging. Herein, we developed a single-atomic Pt-doped WO ₃ (Pt ₁ -WO ₃ ) catalyst, which enabled to reconstruct polaron states from W to Pt−O sites. This polaron reconstruction allows for fast separation of photogenerated charge carriers and tuning of reactant adsorption sites, and greatly improves the photocatalytic CH ₄ activation and conversion efficiency. Under 150 mW·cm ⁻² light intensity and aqueous conditions, the Pt ₁ -WO ₃ photocatalyst exhibited a peak CH ₄ -to-CH ₃ OH conversion yield of 1151 μmol·g _cat ⁻¹ ·h ⁻¹ without the use of photosensitizers, sacrificial reagents or strong oxidizers like O ₂ or H ₂ O ₂ , exceeding the previous reports on photocatalytic CH ₄ oxidation under similar conditions, thus suggesting the capability of tuning polaron states for enhanced photocatalysis.