With Cleavage of Both Te —C Bond

The thermal or photochemical decomposition of volatile dialkyl telluriums is of interest as a source of tellurium atoms for the production of semiconductor devices. The bond breaking enthalpy for the Te—C bond in dimethyl tellurium is 212.1 + 5.4 kJ mol , and in divinyl tellurium 226.8 +9.6kJmor . Dimethyl tellurium begins to decompose at 350° with formation of tellurium, methane, and other hydrocarbons Diethyl ditel lurium begins to decompose at an appreciable rate above 420° Photolysis of dimethyl tellurium and diethyl tellurium with 248 nm photons produced tellurium atoms in a single photon process. The liberated tellurium atoms were in the 5p 2 state.  

Diorgano tellurium compounds with carbonyl groups or C — C double bonds next to the C—Te — C groups are rather labile. For example, allyl methyl tellurium decomposes in light at 60 to 80° to tellurium, 1-butene, and 1,5-hexadiene. In benzene solution at 60° in the dark this unsymmetrical diorgano tellurium symmetrizes to dimethyl tellurium and dialkyl tellurium within 10 minutes . 2,5-Dihydrotellurophenes deposit tellurium at 20° while photolysis of an ethanolic solution at 300 nm produced tellurium and isoprene but no cyclobutene . 

Divinyl tellurium treated with a solution of thiourea in 5 molar hydrochloric acid at 20° produced, after 6h, tellurium, acetaldehyde, and the thiourea-adduct of tellurium(II) chloride . 

The acetal from 1,2-dihydroxyethane and bis[benzoylmethyl] tellurium eliminated tellurium from the molecule upon treatment with / -toluenesulfonic acid in dry acetone or with traces of sulfuric acid in wet acetone . 

Bis[benzoylmethyl] tellurium in benzene solution under an atmosphere of nitrogen was photolyzed (300 nm) to methyl phenyl ketone and tellurium  

---