Formation of methanol from methane and water in an electrical discharge

Abstract

Matrix isolation FTIR experiments have shown that methanol is a major product when argon gas doped with water and methane is exposed to an electrical discharge and condensed to a solid matrix at 11 K. Experiments with 2H, 17O and 18O-labeled isotopologues show the mechanism for the methanol production is likely to be insertion of an excited oxygen atom in the 1D state into a C-H bond of a methane molecule. In light of these experiments, the possibility of oxygen atom insertion into methane should be considered as a possible mechanism for the production of methanol in interstellar ices. © the Owner Societies 2012.