| Reactions of Tellurium |
 Reactions with water |
| Tellurium does not react with water under normal conditions. |
| Reactions with air |
| Tellurium burns in air to form dioxide tellurium(IV) oxide |
Te(s) + 2O2(g) TeO2(s) |
| Reactions with halogens |
| Under carefully controlled conditions in a sealed tube, tellurium reacts with chlorine to form Te3Cl2.
|
| Tellurium reacts with fluorine and burns to form tellurium(VI) fluoride.
|
| Te8(s) + 24F2(g)8TeF6(l) |
| Carefully done, tellurium reacts with fluorine mixed with nitrogen gas at 0°C to form tellurium(IV) fluoride. Tellurium also reacts under controlled conditions with the other halogens chlorine, bromine and iodine to form tetrahalides.
|
| Te8(s) + 16F2(g)8TeF4(s) |
| Te8(s) + 16Cl2(g)8TeCl4(s) |
| Te8(s) + 16Br2(g)8TeBr4(s) |
| Te8(s) + 16I2(g)8TeI4(s) |
| Reactions with acids |
| Tellurium does not react with dilute non-oxidizing acids. |
| Reactions with bases |
| Tellurium does not react with dilute bases under normal conditions. |
| |
| Reduction Potentials |
| Balanced half-reaction |
E0 / V
|
Te4+ + 4e- Te(s) |
+0.568 |
| Te4+ + 2H+ + 6e-H2Te(g) |
+0.132 |
| TeO42- + 4H+ + 2e-TeO2(s) + 2H2O
|
+1.509 |
| HTeO4- + 3H+ + 2e-TeO2(s) + 2H2O
|
+1.202 |
| H2TeO4 + 2H+ + 2e-TeO2(s) + 2H2O
|
+1.020 |
| TeO42- + 2H+ + 2e-TeO32- + H2O
|
+0.892 |
| HTeO4- + H+ + 2e-TeO32- + H2O
|
+0.584 |
| HTeO4- + 2H+ + 2e-HTeO3- + H2O
|
+0.813 |
| H2TeO4 + H+ + 2e-HTeO3- + H2O
|
+0.631 |
| H2TeO4 + 3H+ + 2e-HTeO2+ + 2H2O
|
+0.953 |
| H2TeO4 + 6H+ + 2e-Te4+ + 4H2O
|
+0.920 |
| Te(OH)6(s) + 2H+ + 2e-TeO2(s) + 4H2O
|
+1.02 |
| TeO32- + 6H+ + 4e-Te(s) + 3H2O
|
+0.827 |
| HTeO3- + 5H+ + 4e-Te(s) + 3H2O
|
+0.713 |
| HTeO2+ + 3H+ + 4e-Te(s) + 2H2O
|
+0.551 |
| TeO2+ + 5H+ + 6e-H2Te(g) + 2H2O
|
+0.121 |
| Te(s) + 2H+ + 2e-H2Te(g) |
-0.739 |
| Te(s) + 2e-Te2- |
-1.14 |