Direct and Selective Synthesis of Hydrogen Peroxide over Palladium-Tellurium Catalysts at Ambient Pressure.

Highly selective hydrogen peroxide (H2 O2 ) synthesis directly from H2 and O2 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 H2 O2 under mild conditions (283 K, 0.1 MPa, and a semi-batch continuous flow reactor) is reported. The size of Pd particles was remarkably reduced from 2.1 nm to 1.4 nm with the addition of Te. The Te-modified Pd surface could significantly weaken the dissociative activation of O2 , leading to the non-dissociative hydrogenation of O2 . Density functional theory calculations illuminated the critical role of Te in the selective hydrogenation of O2 , 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 H2 O2 at ambient pressure.