Selenium Catalysts and Antioxidants

Dear Colleagues,

Selenium-based catalysts play an important role in organic synthesis and biology. The unique redox properties of the element can be exploited in a variety of synthetically useful transformations and are known to play crucial roles in several biological processes. While traditional laboratory oxidations were carried out in the past with stoichiometric reagents, such as selenium dioxide or benzeneseleninic anhydride, more recent emphasis has focused on catalytic variations, particularly ones employing stoichiometric amounts of inexpensive and environmentally benign co-oxidants, such as hydrogen peroxide. Examples include dehydrogenations of carbonyl compounds, epoxidations, and brominations. Several catalytic electrophilic and nucleophilic selenium reactions have also been reported, along with enantioselective variations. On the other hand, the redox properties of selenium also enable it to catalyze the reduction of harmful peroxides in living organisms, thereby mitigating oxidative stress, which results from the in vivo formation of peroxides and from other reactive oxygen species derived from those peroxides. For example, selenoenzyme glutathione peroxidase reduces peroxides, with glutathione as the sacrificial co-reductant. Small-molecule selenium compounds that mimic this activity are also of current interest as biological antioxidants. Several other selenoenzymes that regulate biologically important processes, along with their mimetics, have also been reported.

This Special Issue welcomes the submission of papers based on original research that describe selenium compounds as catalysts in synthetically valuable organic transformations or in the area of selenium-based antioxidants and related compounds, including both selenoenzymes and small molecules that emulate them.

Prof. Dr. Thomas G. Back
Guest Editor

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