Ethane is an abundant and cheap hydrocarbon. Selective conversion of ethane to ethanol has economic value but is difficult to achieve due to overoxidation. Here, we report a chemical looping strategy established to selectively convert ethane (C₂H₆) to ethanol (C₂H₅OH) using molecular oxygen (O₂) as the end oxidant and nitrogen dioxide (NO₂) as a relay oxidant. Visible light is used to excite NO₂ to drive a radical reaction with C₂H₆ to produce ethyl nitrate (C₂H₅ONO₂) at −10°C with a selectivity of >80% and an ethane conversion of >90%. C₂H₅ONO₂ is hydrolyzed to generate C₂H₅OH and nitric acid (HNO₃), thus completing a chemical loop for the conversion of ethane to ethanol. DFT calculations show that the introduction of light overcomes the barrier of ethane activation at a relatively low temperature and thus avoids ethyl nitrate decomposition and overoxidation, leading to the high selectivity of ethyl nitrate.

乙烷是一种丰富且廉价的碳氢化合物。乙烷选择性转化为乙醇具有经济价值，但由于过度氧化而难以实现。在这里，我们报告了一种化学循环策略，用于使用分子氧 (O ₂ ) 作为最终氧化剂和二氧化氮 (NO ₂ ) 作为中继氧化剂将乙烷 (C ₂ H ₆ )选择性转化为乙醇 (C ₂ H ₅ OH) . 可见光用于激发 NO ₂以驱动与 C ₂ H ₆的自由基反应生成硝酸乙酯（C ₂ H ₅ ONO ₂) 在 -10°C 下，选择性 >80%，乙烷转化率 >90%。C ₂ H ₅ ONO ₂水解生成C ₂ H ₅ OH和硝酸(HNO ₃ )，从而完成乙烷转化为乙醇的化学回路。DFT 计算表明，光的引入克服了乙烷在较低温度下活化的障碍，从而避免了硝酸乙酯的分解和过氧化，从而导致硝酸乙酯的高选择性。