Synthesis and Structure of Diaryltellurium Disulfonates and Their Application for the α-Tosyloxylation of Ketones

A concise and efficient synthetic route to a variety of functionalized diaryltellurium disulfonates (<b>1</b>) is presented. The hydrolysis of these diaryltellurium disulfonates (<b>1</b>) produces diarylhydroxytelluronium triflates (<b>2</b>). The molecular structures of the diaryltellurium disulfonates and diarylhydroxytelluronium triflates were determined unambiguously using single-crystal X-ray diffraction analysis. To the best of our knowledge, this represents one of the very few reports on the solid-state structures of diaryltellurium disulfonates and diarylhydroxytelluronium triflates to date. The utility of the thus obtained diaryltellurium disulfonates was subsequently demonstrated via their application to the α-tosyloxylation of ketones, which also marks the first use of this class of compounds for this transformation.