Trevor N. Day, Robin A. Gomme and J. Steven Ogden
Solid samples of alkali-metal tellurites (M2TeO3; M = K, Rb or Cs) have been heated in vacuo and the vaporisation products studied by mass spectrometry and matrix-isolation infrared spectroscopy. The molecular species M2TeO3 are identified by mass spectrometry as important products of vaporisation, and subsequent matrix-isolation studies, which incorporated oxygen-18 data, established both vibrational assignments and probable structures for these species. In particular, molecular K2TeO3 in argon has prominent IR absorptions at ca. 752, 742, 672, 360 and 306 cm-1 and a structure based on a pyramidal TeO3 unit.