Phenyl substituted ditelluro-imidodiphosphinate complexes of iron, nickel, palladium and platinum, and their pyrolysis studies generating metal tellurides

Abstract The tellurium complexes M[N(PPh 2 Te) 2 ] n (M = Fe ( 1 ), Ni ( 2 ), Pd ( 3 ), Pt ( 4 ) and n  = 2 or 3) have been prepared using the ditellurido anions [N(PPh 2 Te) 2 ] − and their ability to generate tellurides was investigated by pyrolysis in a quartz glass tube, under vacuum at 500 °C for 90 min. The products were characterised by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDAX) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The XRD revealed an orthorhombic phase for the metal telluride from 1 , while the hexagonal phase was observed for tellurides from 2 , 3 and 4 respectively. Magnetic measurements on FeTe 2 (from 1 ) indicated an antiferromagnetic sample with a transition temperature at 75 K.