Selective oxidation of methane to methanol has been often considered as a "holy grail" reaction in catalysis. Herein, we systematically investigate the effect of solution pH and Pd-to-Au ratio of AuPd x colloid on the catalytic performance of methane oxidation. It is revealed that these two parameters can determine the amount of H 2 O 2 participated in the reaction, which is linearly related to the productivity of oxygenates. A high catalytic performance in methane activation requires a high utilization of H 2 O 2 to generate more •OH. The optimal pH is 3.0 and the optimal Pd-to-Au ratio is between 0.1 to 0.7.