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The reaction of hydrogen chloride with bis ( p ‐ethoxyphenyl)telluride, a possible route to pure tellurium
Author(s) -
Elgy Christine,
McWhinnie William R
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
applied organometallic chemistry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 71
eISSN - 1099-0739
pISSN - 0268-2605
DOI - 10.1002/aoc.590010506
Subject(s) - tellurium , chemistry , selenium , antimony , telluride , reagent , inorganic chemistry , chloride , tin , arsenic , organic chemistry
The reaction of hydrogen chloride with bis( p ‐ethoxyphenyl)telluride is investigated and shown to give essentially phenetole (C 6 H 5 COEt), tellurium, and bis( p ‐ethoxyphenyl)tellurium dichloride. Spectroscopic methods (UV–visible, 125 Te NMR) show that some bis( p ‐ethoxyphenyl)ditelluride is produced. This is believed to arise from a side reaction of organic telluride with an intermediate organyltellurenyl chloride which is considered to arise from initial proton attack at the Te–C bond of the telluride. The ditelluride reacts with HCl to deposit 80% of its tellurium content as the element; phenetole is the other major product. Use of a spin‐trap reagent gave no evidence of radical intermediates. An attempt to develop a reaction sequence to prepare high‐purity tellurium is described. Although a purity of 99.985% could be achieved, overall yields are not economic, unless very highpurity tellurium is required. The method described is, however, very effective for the removal of traces of tin, lead, arsenic and antimony and can significantly reduce the copper, iron and selenium content; for example, one treatment of an alloy (Te, 75%; Se, 25%) gave a sample of tellurium containing 40 ppm selenium.