The most important challenge in gas phase heterogeneous catalysis is to reach high selectivity in a desired process. Probably the only way to this is to work under “friendly temperature conditions”.

Robert Wojcieszak and his colleagues, Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences UCL, Louvain la Neuve, Belgium, produced methyl formate directly from methanol with a very high selectivity, over supported palladium nanoparticles at low temperature (50–150 °C) and under atmospheric pressure. The well dispersed palladium nanoparticles, ranged between 1–8 nm, can be highly active catalysts for the gasphase reaction. The results strongly suggest that they induce the C–O–C coupling at low temperature.

• Low Temperature-High Selectivity Process over Supported Pd Nanoparticles in Partial Oxidation of Methanol,
  Robert Wojcieszak, Eric M. Gaigneaux, Patricio Ruiz,
  ChemCatChem 2011.
  DOI: 10.1002/cctc.201100215