Epoxidation of olefins using diaryltellurium dicarboxylates.

This paper reports an efficient method for the epoxidation of a variety of functionalized olefins using diaryltellurium dicarboxylates as hypervalent tellurium compounds. This method is able to efficiently convert olefins into epoxides using catalytic amounts of tellurium and urea hydrogen peroxide. Furthermore, we propose that this reaction proceeds via the formation of peroxides of phenol, carboxylic acid, and tellurium peroxide when diaryltellurium dicarboxylates and hydrogen peroxide react. This is the first example of an epoxidation reaction using hypervalent tellurium compounds.

One-pot synthesis, structural analysis, and oxidation applications of a series of diaryltellurium dicarboxylates.

This paper presents a concise and efficient one-pot synthesis of a variety of functionalized diaryltellurium dicarboxylates. The method is based on a mild photosensitized oxygenation of cheap and readily available carboxylic acids. The molecular structures of the diaryltellurium dicarboxylates were determined unambiguously using single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. The thus obtained diaryltellurium dicarboxylates were used to study the oxidation of benzoin derivatives.