Question

Give the inter-relationship of methane, methyl alcohol, formaldehyde and formic acid with conditions 

Answer 1

(1) Methane to methyl alcohol:
When a mixture of methane and oxygen is compressed to about 120atm pressure and passed over copper tubes at 475K, ethyl alcohol is formed. 

`2CH_4 + O_2`  `2CH_3OOH`  

(b) Methane to formaldehyde: 

When mixture of methane and oxygen is passed through heated molybdenum oxide, the mixture is oxidized to Formaldehyde. 

`CH_4 + O_2 `   `2HCOOH + 2H_2O` 

(c) Methane to Formic acid:
When a manganese based catalyst is used methane is oxidized to formic acid. 

`2CH_4 + 3O_2`  `2HCOOH + 2H_2O`