Ytterbium metal promoted reaction of diselenides with (3-substituted)imidazolidin2-one-1-carbonyl chlorides

College of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, 310014, P. R. China Department of Chemistry, Zhejiang University at Xi Xi Campus, Hangzhou, 310028, P. R. China

State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, 200032, P. R. China

Manuscript received 13 June 2001, accepted 25 September 2001

In the presence of a catalytic amount of methyl iodide, metallic ytterbium promotes the acylation of diselenides with (3- substituted)imidazolidin-2-one-1-carbonyl chlorides to give (3-substituted)imidazolidin-2-one-1-carbonyl selenoesters in good yields under mild and neutral conditions.