Tellurium dioxide (TeO2) is a solid oxide of tellurium. It is encountered in two different forms, the yellow orthorhombic mineral tellurite, β-TeO2, and the synthetic, colourless tetragonal (paratellurite), α-TeO2.[2] Most of the information regarding reaction chemistry has been obtained in studies involving paratellurite, α-TeO2.[3]
Preparation
Paratellurite, α-TeO2, is produced by reacting tellurium with O2:[2]
Te + O2 → TeO2
An alternative preparation is to dehydrate tellurous acid, H2TeO3, or to thermally decompose basic tellurium nitrate, Te2O4·HNO3, above 400 °C.[2]
Physical properties
The longitudinal speed of sound in Tellurium dioxide is 4,260 metres per second (14,000 ft/s) at around room temperature.[4]
Paratellurite, α-TeO2, converts at high pressure into the β-, tellurite form.[7] Both the α-, (paratellurite) and β- (tellurite forms) contain four coordinate Te with the oxygen atoms at four of the corners of a trigonal bipyramid. In paratellurite all vertices are shared to give a rutile-like structure, where the O-Te-O bond angle are 140°. α-TeO2 In tellurite pairs of trigonal pyramidal, TeO4 units, sharing an edge, share vertices to then form a layer.[7] The shortest Te-Te distance in tellurite is 317 pm, compared to 374 pm in paratellurite.[7] Similar Te2O6 units are found in the mineral denningite.[7]
TeO 2 melts at 732.6 °C, forming a red liquid.[8] The structure of the liquid, as well as the glass which can be formed from it with sufficiently rapid cooling, are also based on approximately four coordinate Te. However, compared to the crystalline forms, the liquid and glass appear to incorporate short-range disorder (a variety of coordination geometries) which marks TeO2 glass as distinct from the canonical single-oxide glass-formers such as SiO2, which share the same short-range order with their parent liquids.[9]
Tellurium dioxide is also a reluctant glass former, it will form a glass under suitable cooling conditions,[10] or with additions of a small molar fraction of a second compound such as an oxide or halide. TeO2 glasses have high refractive indices and transmit into the mid-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum, therefore they are of technological interest for optical waveguides. Tellurite glasses have also been shown to exhibit Raman gain up to 30 times that of silica, useful in optical fibre amplification.[11]
^W.R.McWhinnie (1995) Tellurium - Inorganic chemistry Encyclopedia of Inorganic Chemistry Ed. R. Bruce King (1994) John Wiley & Sons ISBN978-0-471-93620-6
^Egon Wiberg, Nils Wiberg, Arnold Frederick Holleman (2001). Inorganic chemistry. Academic Press. pp. 592–593. ISBN0-12-352651-5.
^Alderman O, Benmore C, Feller S, Kamitsos E, Simandiras E, Liakos D, Jesuit M, Boyd M, Packard M, Weber R (2020). "Short-Range Disorder in TeO2 Melt and Glass". J. Phys. Chem. Lett. 11 (2): 427–431. doi:10.1021/acs.jpclett.9b03231. OSTI1591765. PMID31867975. S2CID209446093.
^Tagiara NS, Palles D, Simandiras E, Psycharis V, Kyritsis A, Kamitsos EI (2017). "Synthesis, thermal and structural properties of pure TeO2 glass and zinc-tellurite glasses". Journal of Non-Crystalline Solids. 457: 116–125. doi:10.1016/j.jnoncrysol.2016.11.033.
^Stegeman R, Jankovic L, Kim H, Rivero C, Stegeman G, Richardson K, Delfyett P, Guo Y, Schulte A, Cardinal T (2003). "Tellurite glasses with peak absolute Raman gain coefficients up to 30 times that of fused silica". Optics Letters. 28 (13): 1126–8. Bibcode:2003OptL...28.1126S. doi:10.1364/OL.28.001126. PMID12879929.
^Perez-D'Gregorio RE, Miller RK, Baggs RB (1988). "Maternal toxicity and teratogenicity of tellurium dioxide in the Wistar rat: relationship to pair-feeding". Reprod. Toxicol. 2 (1): 55–61. doi:10.1016/S0890-6238(88)80009-1. PMID2980402.