A comprehensively theoretical analysis on the broadband spectral energy distributions (SEDs) of large-scale jet knots in 3C 273 is presented for revealing their X-ray radiation mechanism. We show that these SEDs cannot be explained with a single electron population model when the Doppler boosting effect is either considered or not. By adding a more energetic electron (the leptonic model) or proton (the hadronic model) population, the SEDs of all knots are well represented. In the leptonic model, the electron population that contributes the X-ray emission is more energetic than the one responsible for the radio-optical emission by almost two orders of magnitude; the derived equipartition magnetic field strengths (B eq ) are ∼ 0.1 mG. In the hadronic model, the protons with energy of ∼ 20 PeV are required to interpret the observed X-rays; the B eq values are several mG, larger than that in the leptonic model. Based on the fact that no resolved substructures are observed in these knots and the fast cooling-time of the high-energy electrons is difficult to explain the observed X-ray morphologies, we argue that two distinct electron populations accelerated in these knots are unreasonable and their X-ray emission would be attributed to the proton synchrotron radiation accelerated in these knots. In case of these knots have relativistic motion towards the observer, the super-Eddington issue of the hadronic model could be avoided. Multiwavelength polarimetry and the γ-ray observations with high resolution may be helpful to discriminate these models.In this scenario, the synchrotron, SSC, and IC/CMB radiations of a single electron population are used to reproduce the broadband SEDs of knots. The radiating electrons are assumed to have the number distribution as Equation (1). The minimum and maximum energies of electrons are taken as E e,min =1 MeV and E e,max =510 TeV, which are respectively corresponding to γ e ∼ 2 and γ e ∼ 10 9 , where γ e is the Lorenz factor of electrons. In case of the knots do not have the relativistic motions, i.e., δ = Γ = 1, the IC component would be dominated by the SSC process since the energy density of the synchrotron radiation photon field (U syn ) is higher than U ′ CMB . A magnetic field strength (B) lower than the equipartition value (B eq ) is also needed (e.g.