Electrolytic reactions selective anodic fluorination

In contrast to the cathodic reduction of organic tellurium compounds, few studies on their anodic oxidation have been performed. No paper has reported on the electrolytic reactions of fluorinated tellurides up to date, which is probably due to the difficulty of the preparation of the partially fluorinated tellurides as starting material. Quite recently, Fuchigami et al. have investigated the anodic behavior of 2,2,2-trifluoroethyl and difluoroethyl phenyl tellurides (8 and 9) [54]. The telluride 8 does not undergo an anodic a-substitution, which is totally different to the eases of the corresponding sulfide and selenide. Even in the presence of fluoride ions, the anodic methoxylation does not take place at all. Instead, a selective difluorination occurs at the tellurium atom effectively to provide the hypervalent tellurium derivative in good yield as shown in Scheme 6.12. 

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