Hypervalent iodine (III) reagents are electrophilic trifluoromethylating agents commonly applied in organic syntheses. Since their introduction in 2006,^[1,2] the parent structures have been subjected to numerous modifications. However to date, the central iodine atom has been retained in each instance.^[3–5] Herein, we report for the first time a synthesis of unique compounds in which the iodine atom has formally been exchanged for tellurium. Thus, a series of CF₃ tellurium (II) species differing in the functional group coordinated to the central atom has been obtained. All products have been fully characterized using HRMS and NMR spectroscopy, including advanced ¹H¹²⁵Te and ¹⁹F¹²⁵Te correlation measurements. Furthermore, selected modifications performed after installing the CF₃ group on the tellurium atom have been successfully carried out.^[6]

[1] J. Charpentier, N. Früh, A. Togni, Chem. Rev. 2015, 115, 650–82.
[2] P. Eisenberger, S. Gischig, A. Togni, Chem. Eur. J. 2006, 12, 2579–86.
[3] K. Niedermann, J. M. Welch, R. Koller, J. Cvengroš, N. Santschi, P. Battaglia, A. Togni, Tetrahedron 2010, 66, 5753–5761.
[4] N. Santschi, R. C. Sarott, E. Otth, R. Kissner, A. Togni, Beilstein J. Org. Chem. 2014, 10, 1–6.
[5] V. Matoušek, J. Václavík, P. Hájek, J. Charpentier, Z. E. Blastik, E. Pietrasiak, A. Budinská, A. Togni, P. Beier, Chem. Eur. J. 2016, 22, 417–24.
[6] E. Pietrasiak, A. Togni, manuscript in preparation