Abstract: | Addition of promoters, such as Li2O, Na2O, PbO, La2O3, MgCl2 and CaCl2, to MgO causes a large increase in its surface basicity (particularly strong basic sites) and catalytic activity/selectivity in oxidative coupling of methane, but the correlation between the basicity and C2-yield is poor, indicating that factors other than basicity are also important in deciding catalytic performance. |