Chalcogenolates selenolates

The aim of this chapter is to review the chemistry of chalcogenolates in the last 10 years. The more recent reviews in this field included chalcogenolates of the s-block elements,13,14 early transition metal thiolates,15 metal complexes with selenolate and tellurolate ligands,16 copper(I), lithium and magnesium thiolates,17 functionalized thiolate complexes,18 19 pentafluorobenzenethiolate platinum group compounds,20 tellurium derivatives,21 luminescent gold compounds,22 and complexes with lanthanide or actinide.23... 

The starting material is always the chalcogenol and, consequently, is more used for thiols than selenols and tellurols. There are several types of reactions depending if the starting materials are metal hydrides (hydrogen elimination), complexes with M C (alkane elimination), M-N (transamination), or M-O (hydrolysis) bonds. 

The first report outlining the synthesis of a homoleptic product was the synthesis by Bochkarev of the divalent compound (Yb(EBu)2 E = S, Se), prepared by a proton-transfer reaction of an amido precursor with HEBu. This was followed by the metatiietical synthesis of Ln(SR)6 and compounds of the heavier chalcogenolates (Ln(EC6H3R3)2 (E = Se, Te R = Me). " The structure of the thiolate compound was described, but stmctural characterization of selenolate and tellurolate compounds did not appear until later, when the E-Si(SiMes)3 ligand was introduced to the Ln field, and new synthetic approaches to complexes of the EPh ligand were developed. 

---