Superfast tellurizing synthesis of unconventional phase-controlled small Pd-Te nanoparticles

Large-scale production of unconventional phase-controlled telluride catalysts in a simple and fast manner still poses a great challenge. Herein, we develop a superfast tellurizing synthesis method that can quickly prepare unconventional phase-controlled palladium telluride nanoparticles (Pd-Te NPs) on carbon nanotubes (CNTs) (i.e., PdTe/CNT, Pd20Te7/CNT) in 60 s. By merely tuning the mass of the tellurium precursors under the same conditions, fine (about 5.5 nm) and high-yield (about 90%) hexagonal structured PdTe/CNT and rhombohedral structured Pd20Te7/CNT can be precisely synthesized. The hexagonal structured PdTe/CNT exhibits excellent performance for glycerol oxidation reaction (GOR) and ethylene glycol oxidation reaction (EGOR). Specifically, the highest current density for GOR is 2.72 A mgPd−1, which is 1.9-fold higher than that of rhombohedral structured Pd20Te7/CNT, and 2.8-fold higher than that of Pd/CNT. It also outperforms most catalysts reported in GOR. Meanwhile, the specific activity for EGOR is 3.65 A mgPd−1, which is 2.1 and 3.9 times higher than those of rhombohedral structured Pd20Te7/CNT and Pd/CNT. We hope that this work can provide guidance for the preparation of crystalline phase-controlled telluride catalysts via new tellurization and inspire the application of crystalline phase-controlled materials.