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

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.