Polytelluride

Many main group and transition metals form complexes with polytelluride anions.

[1] Conceptually, polytellurides are derived from polytelluranes H2Ten, but such neutral species are not known (even H2Te is labile).

Instead, analogous to the preparation of many Zintl ions, polytellurides are produced by reduction of elemental Te with alkali metals.

Polytelluride salts generally feature open chains, which adopt a zig-zag conformation.

In some cases, cyclic structures are observed as in Li2Te7, which features a square-planar Te center bound to two Te-Te-Te chains.

As their alkali salts, polytellurides adopt diverse structures as illustrated by penta- and heptatellurides.
Structure of [Cr(Te 4 ) 3 ] 3- . [ 2 ]