Selenoesters, reduction decarbonylative

Phenyl selenoesters have been reported to undergo reduction to the corresponding aldehydes and/or alkanes in the presence of (TMS)3SiH under free-radical conditions16. The decrease of aldehyde formation through the primary, secondary and tertiary substituted series, under the same conditions, indicated that a decarbonylation of acyl radicals takes place. Equation 11 shows an example of a tertiary substituted substrate. 

Selenoesters are effective radical precursors which can afford aldehydes by direct reduction with reagents such as Bu3SnH, or decarbonylated (nor-aldehyde) products. For example, Stojanovic and Renaud described the decarbonylative reduction of phenylse-lenoester (73) during their synthetic investigations (equation 44)280. Similarly, Alcaide and his associates utilised decarbonylative reduction of a phenylselenoester during their... 

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