Direct conversion of earth-abundant methane into value-added chemicals under mild conditions is an attractive technology in response to the increasing industrial demand of feedstocks and worldwide appeal of energy conservation. Exploring advanced low-temperature C-H activation catalysts and reaction systems is the key to converting methane in a direct and mild manner. The recently developed reaction processes operated at low-temperature thermocatalysis systems or driven in electro-and photocatalysis systems shine light on the way to achieve efficient methane conversion with much economical energy input. In this review, we summarize the typical catalytic processes employed in these reaction systems and in particular highlight the potential heterogeneous catalysts with noteworthy C-H activation performance. We also present the progress along with our perspectives on catalyst design, theoretical simulations, the choice of reaction condition, and the method of reaction product analysis to encourage more viable technology for low-temperature methane conversion in the future.

RuO2 is considered as the state‐of‐the‐art electrocatalyst for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) in acidic media. However, its practical application is largely hindered by both the high reaction overpotential and severe electrochemical corrosion of the active centers. To overcome these limitations, innovative design strategies are necessary, which remains a great challenge. Herein, robust interface Ru centers between RuO2 and graphene, via a controllable oxidation of graphene encapsulating Ru nanoparticles, are presented to efficiently enhance both the activity and stability of the acidic OER. Through precisely controlling the reaction interface, a much lower OER overpotential of only 227 mV at 10 mA cm−2 in acidic electrolyte, compared with that of 290 mV for commercial RuO2, but a significantly higher durability than the commercial RuO2, are achieved. Density functional theory (DFT) calculations reveal that the interface Ru centers between the RuO2 and the graphene can break the classic scaling relationships between the free energies of HOO* and HO* to reduce the limiting potential, rendering an enhancement in the intrinsic OER activity and the resistance to over‐oxidation and corrosion for RuO2.