First-principles calculations have been carried out to investigate the adsorption of Pdn (n≤10) clusters on the single-walled (8, 0) and (5, 5) SiC nanotubes (SiCNTs).We find that the Pdn clusters can be stably adsorbed on the outer surfaces of both SiCNTs through an exothermic adsorption process.The adsorption energies of the Pdn clusters on the (8, 0) SiCNT are generally larger than those of Pdn on the (5, 5) SiCNT.The bond number between the Pdn clusters and the SiCNTs increases with increasing cluster size.