Direct And Selective Synthesis Of Hydrogen Peroxide Over Palladium-Tellurium Catalysts At Ambient Pressure

Highly selective hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) synthesis directly from H-2 and O-2 is a strongly desired reaction for green processes. Herein a highly efficient palladium-tellurium (Pd-Te/TiO2) catalyst with a selectivity of nearly 100% toward H2O2 under mild conditions (283K, 0.1MPa, and a semi-batch continuous flow reactor) is reported. The size of Pd particles was remarkably reduced from 2.1nm to 1.4nm with the addition of Te. The Te-modified Pd surface could significantly weaken the dissociative activation of O-2, leading to the non-dissociative hydrogenation of O-2. Density functional theory calculations illuminated the critical role of Te in the selective hydrogenation of O-2, in that the active sites composed of Pd and Te could significantly restrain side reactions. This work has made significant progress on the development of high-selectivity catalysts for the direct synthesis of H2O2 at ambient pressure.