“On-water” thiolysis of epoxides promoted by PhSZnBr

Recent trends in ring opening of epoxides with sulfur nucleophiles

Thiolysis of epoxides offers an efficient and simple synthetic approach to access [Formula: see text]-hydroxy sulfides which are valuable scaffold in the synthesis of various important molecules in medicinal chemistry. This review article presents a recent compilation of the synthetic approaches developed after 2000 for the thiolysis of epoxides.

A new vinyl selenone-based domino approach to spirocyclopropyl oxindoles endowed with anti-HIV RT activity

Herein, we disclose a general and flexible access to spirocyclopropyl oxindoles by a domino Michael/intramolecular nucleophilic substitution pathway with variously substituted vinyl selenones and enolizable oxindoles in aqueous sodium hydroxide solution. The spirocyclopropyl oxindole being a privileged scaffold, some of the synthesized compounds were selected for biological evaluation. Compound showed selective anti-HIV-1 activity thanks to its ability to inhibit the reverse transcriptase.

Selenium Catalyzed Oxidation of Aldehydes: Green Synthesis of Carboxylic Acids and Esters

The stoichiometric use of hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a selenium-containing catalyst in water is here reported as a new ecofriendly protocol for the synthesis of variously functionalized carboxylic acids and esters. The method affords the desired products in good to excellent yields under very mild conditions starting directly from commercially available aldehydes. Using benzaldehyde as a prototype the gram scale synthesis of benzoic acid is described, in which the aqueous medium and the catalyst could be recycled at last five times while achieving an 87% overall yield.