Sodium telluride, prepared by heating tellurium and sodium hydride in a 1: 2 molar ratio in dry N, N-dimethylformamide, readily debrominates a bromoacetic ester at low temperatures to generate an enolate anion, which undergoes a Reformatsky-type reaction with various non-enolizable aldehydes to give the corresponding α, β-unsaturated esters in good to moderate yields. Ketones remain almost unaffected under the same conditions.
