New Aspects of the Telluroxide Elimination. A Facile Elimination of sec-Alkyl Phenyl Telluroxide Leading to Olefins, Allylic Alcohols, and Allylic Ethers

Article abstract of DOI:10.1021/ja00347a039

The utility of the telluroxide for olefin synthesis, a reaction which previously appeared to be of little value, is described.Treatment of sec-alkylphenyltellurium dibromides, except for the cyclohexyl system, with aqueous NaOH at room temperature affords olefins, allylic alcohols, and/or allylic ethers in high yields presumably via the formation of sec-alkyl phenyl telluroxides and their facile telluroxide elimination.As to the formation of linear olefins, more preference for elimination toward the less substituted carbon was observed than the selenoxide and sulfoxide eliminations.In the cyclododecyl case only trans-cyclododecene was formed as an olefin component in a sharp contrast to the selenoxide elimination that affords a 1:1 mixture of cis and trans isomers.On the contrary, in the n-alkyl and cyclohexyl cases the corresponding telluroxides are stable compounds that afford similar elimination products including vinylic ethers only by neat pyrolysis at temperatures above 200 deg C.