cubane-like molecules with distorted octahedral coordination around Te and Se, the lone pair being largely delocalized.Our investigations on Te'" iodide showed this compound to have a molecular structure in the solid which has not yet been observed in binary inorganic substances.Single crystals for X-ray structure analysis were obtained by repeated sublimation at 100°C in evacuated glass tubes of 5 cm length; the starting material was purified TeI,, prepared by reaction of concentrated aqueous solutions of telluric acid and hydrogen iodide"].TeI, crystallizes in the orthorhombic space group Pnma with the cell constants a = 13.635, b= 16.798, c = 14.624A, Z = 16 TeI,, d,=5.04, d,,,=~5.02 g/cm3 (literature values a= 13.54, b= 16.73, c = 14.48A[*]). The structure was solved from 3800 diffractometer data using Patterson methods and was refined to a conventional R factor of 5.3 %. Fig. 1. Molecular structure of telluriiim tetraiodide (Tel,), in the crystal.[3] D. J. H. Smith and S. Tripperr, J. Chem. SOC. Perkin Trans. I 1Y75,
963.A n g m . Chem. lnt. Ed. Engl. 1 Vo/. 15 (1976) No. I