New Aliphatic Tellurenyl and Tellurinyl Compounds

Continuing earlier work on organyl tellurium halides 1 , alkyl tellurium trihalides RTeHal 3 (Hal = Cl, Br, I) and salts incorporating the alkanetetrahalotellurinate anions A + RTeHal 4 − (A + = py + , NR′ + 4 ; Hal = Cl, Br, I) have been synthesized. The equimolar reaction of R 2 Te 2 with elemental halogen yielded the aliphatic tellurenyl halides RTeHal (Hal = Cl, Br, I), that were also accessible by the comproportionation of R 2 Te 2 and RTeHal 3 . The tellurenyl compounds were trapped chemically and characterized spectroscopically. Hydrolysis of the trihalides afforded various tellurinyl derivatives, depending on the reaction conditions: RTe(O)Hal (Hal = Cl, Br), RTeO − 2 , or (RTeO) 2 O. Constitutions and equilibria were studied by NMR, UV, CD, MCD, and IR.