Metal Complex May Help Turn Methane Gas into a Liquid Fuel (IMAGE)

Washington University in St. Louis

Metal Complex May Help Turn Methane Gas into a Liquid Fuel

Caption

One goal of Mirica's lab is to design a metal catalyst that can pull one hydrogen (white balls) off of each of two methane molecules (top) and then combine the resulting methyl groups to form the hydrocarbon ethane (bottom). Additional steps would add to the molecule's carbon backbone, converting a gas to a more easily transported liquid.

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