Selective and low temperature transition metal intercalation in layered tellurides

Layered materials embrace rich intercalation reactions to accommodate high concentrations of foreign species within their structures, and find many applications spanning from energy storage, ion exchange to secondary batteries. Light alkali metals are generally most easily intercalated due to their light mass, high charge/volume ratio and in many cases strong reducing properties. An evolving area of materials chemistry, however, is to capture metals selectively, which is of technological and environmental significance but rather unexplored. Here we show that the layered telluride T 2 PTe 2 ( T =Ti, Zr) displays exclusive insertion of transition metals (for example, Cd, Zn) as opposed to alkali cations, with tetrahedral coordination preference to tellurium. Interestingly, the intercalation reactions proceed in solid state and at surprisingly low temperatures (for example, 80 °C for cadmium in Ti 2 PTe 2 ). The current method of controlling selectivity provides opportunities in the search for new materials for various applications that used to be possible only in a liquid. The intercalation of metal ions in layered structures has a wide variety of applications, from energy storage to environmental remediation. Here the authors report that layered telluride structures can selectively bind transition metals and this intercalation can occur in solid state at mild conditions.