Efficient Heterogeneous Copper-Catalysed C–Se Coupling of Aryl Iodides with Symmetrical Diselenides towards Unsymmetrical Monoselenides

Abstract

A highly efficient heterogeneous copper(I)-catalysed C–Se coupling of aryl iodides with diaryl diselenides was achieved in dimethylformamide at 110 °C under neutral conditions by using a 10 mol% of bipyridine-functionalised MCM-41-supported copper(I) complex [bpy-MCM-41-CuI] as the catalyst and magnesium as the reductive reagent, yielding a variety of unsymmetrical diaryl selenides in good to excellent yields. This heterogeneous copper catalyst can be easily recovered by a simple filtration of the reaction solution and recycled at least seven times without significant loss of activity.