Alane reduction of selenium and tellurium: tertiary amine stabilised dimeric chalcogenides, trans-[{Me3N(H)Al(µ-E)}2](E = Se, Te)

Abstract

Elemental selenium or tellurium react with trimethylamine alane, [Me3NAlH3], in toluene affording the bis-trimethylamine adducts of the dimeric chalcogenidoalanes, [{HAl(µ-E)}2](E = Se, Te) isolated as the trans-isomers; ab initio molecular orbital calculations on model species show that N-donor Lewis-base solvated dimeric species are the energetically most favourable structures for these chalcogenidoalane species.