Selenium-containing compounds, addition

Se NMR spectroscopy is more and more recognized as a useful tool for the elucidation of molecular structures of selenium-containing compounds and intermediates. In other applications, Se nuclei were used as probes for detecting molecular chirality, intramolecular interactions, or bond situations. In addition, some methods have been invented where selenium-containing auxiliaries are applied to selenium-free compounds. In the following, applications in those fields are presented. 

All these transformations need stoichiometric amounts of selenium-containing reagents. The addition or cycliza-tion products are usually intermediates in synthetic sequences. Most target compounds do not contain a selenium moiety and there is the need for deselenenylation at some stage. Often this can be combined with a subsequent functionalization like substitution or elimination. Combinations of addition and deselenenylation reactions with only catalytic amounts of a selenium reagent are described in Section 9.11.2.8.2. 

This volume has been divided (arbitrarily) into seven chapters. Chapter 1 contains some interesting syntheses of sulfur- and selenium-containing coordination compounds and clusters including the synthesis of the [Fe4S4(SR)4]2 species which R. H. Holm so elegantly identified as models for active sites in nonheme iron proteins. Compounds formed from S22 and S52 are described. A convenient synthesis of CSe2 is reported. Several additional compounds relevant to biological sulfur chemistry are described. 

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