ALANE REDUCTION OF SELENIUM AND TELLURIUM - TERTIARY AMINE STABILIZEDDIMERIC CHALCOGENIDES, TRANS-[(ME(3)N(H)AL(MU-E))(2)] (E=SE, TE)

Elemental selenium or tellurium react with trimethylamine alane, [Me(3 )NAIH(3)], in toluene affording the bis-trimethylamine adducts of the dimeric chalcogenidoalanes, [{HAl(mu-E())}2] (E = Se, Te) isolated as the trans-isomers; ab initio molecular orbital calculations on model s pecies show that N-donor Lewis-base solvated dimeric species are the e nergetically most favourable structures for these chalcogenidoalane sp ecies.