Cadmium Telluride, CdTe

Cadmium Telluride, CdTe, was obtained as a dark powder by heating cadmium tellurite or tellurate in a stream of hydrogen. When it is strongly heated some tellurium is liberated and a porous grey metallic mass results. Dark crystals belonging to the cubic system, of density 6.20, were prepared by melting cadmium and tellurium together and subliming the product in a current of hydrogen.

CdTe falls as a heavy maroon precipitate when sodium telluride solution is added to a solution of cadmium acetate acidified with acetic acid. It oxidises readily when moist and is almost black when dry. Only nitric acid of the ordinary dilute acids attacks it in the cold.

[Cd] + [Te] (cryst.) = [CdTe] (cryst.) +19.96 Cal.