Unraveling the activity and stability of cationic tellurium activators in Ritter-type reactions

Abstract

We carried out Ritter-type reactions using two kinds of cationic tellurium activators. Compared with the trivalent dianisylmethyltelluronium cation, the divalent telluroviologen derivatives showed higher activity and better stability. Telluroviologen activator could cleave the C–OH bond of benzhydrol and the reaction was accelerated under LED light irradiation.