Tellurides and Ditellurides

Arylation of Na2Te to prepare aromatic tellurides requires the use of aryl iodides 

Although unsymmetrical tellurides are obtained by stepwise alkylation of Na2Te 

Air-oxidation of metal tellurolates is another convenient synthesis of organic ditellurides [57a,c,d,g, 60 c, 64]. 

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Sections 3.1-3.3 outline the principal preparative methods of diorganyl tellurides and ditellurides, organyltellurium trichlorides and diorganyltellurium dichlorides, which were the first classes of compounds investigated at the beginning of tellurium organic chemistry. 

Aryltellurium trichlorides are highly soluble in methanol and ethanol but less soluble in benzene. Diaryltellurium dichlorides exhibit inverse solubilities, being more soluble in benzene than in methanol or ethanol. These properties allow an easy separation of diaryl tellurides from diaryl ditellurides (frequently formed as by-products in the preparation of tellurides) the mixture is treated with SOjClj and the obtained mixed di- and trichlorides are separated by the appropriate solvents, and reduced back into the pure tellurides and ditellurides. 

Ellis AB, Bolts JM, Wrighton MS (1977) Characterization of n-type semiconducting indium phosphide photoelectrodes stabilization to photoanodic dissolution in aqueous solutions of telluride and ditelluride ions. J Electrochem Soc 124 1603-1607... 

Tellurium has two NMR-active nucleii Te and Te. Both have a nuclear spin of 1/2 see Tellurium Inorganic Chemistifj. Te is more abundant and has a better receptivity than Te. It has therefore found more general use in NMR spectroscopic characterization of tellurium-containing compounds. Some examples of the Te chemical shifts of diorganyl tellurides and ditellurides are shown in Table 1. The... 

Sodium telluride and ditelluride are readily generated in situ from Te by reduction with thiourea dioxide, and subsequent treatment with alkyl halide provides the corresponding dialkyl tellurides and ditellurides. E Thiourea dioxide and NaOH in 1 1 water/THF added to Te under N2, the mixture refluxed for 1 h, n-octyl halide and a little cetyltrimethylammonium bromide in THF added, and refluxing continued for 1 h - dioctyl telluride. Y 85%. The method is cheap, simple and does not require very dry conditions. F.e. and sym. ditellurides s. J.T.B. Ferreira et al., Synth. Commun. 19, 239-44 (1989) prepn. of Na2Te from ultra-pure Te-ingots/Na-naphthalenide, or from Te/Na and a little naphthalene, s. K.T. Higa, D.C. Harris, Organometallics 8, 1674-8 (1989). 

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