Organotellurium Compounds 5. A Convenient Synthesis of Some Aliphatic Ditellurides

Although diethyl dielluide was first obtained about 130 years ago,1 the aliphatic ditelluides have been relatively little studied. This is party due to the extremely repulsive odors of the lowest members of the series, but also to the fact that the known methods of synthesis are not practical for the preparation of large amounts of pure materials.2 Fo example, din-butyl ditelluride (1), the first well characterized dialky 1 dielluride, was obtained from Na2Te2 and n-butyl bromide in only 23% yeild after fractional distillation from the corresponding monotellurie.3.