“…On the contrary, it has been illustrated recently that the structure and reactivity of Te in the whole chalcogenide family are quite different from those of others . It is worth mentioning that despite growing interest in Te-based materials owing to their excellent intriguing properties such as charge transport, thermo/piezo electricity, and fast photoresponse, their practical applications are still limited due to their inevitable surface oxidation. − Therefore, a clear understanding of the fundamental Te chemistry is of the utmost importance for the development of new structures and novel applications. In a nutshell, tellurium has four unique properties in the chalcogenide family (Figure ): (i) highest stability in the higher oxidation state (e.g., Te 4+ ), (ii) highest electropositivity, (iii) anisotropic nature, and (iv) tendency toward heterostructure formation that makes it “maverick” in the chalcogenide series .…”