Copper-catalyzed diarylation of Se with aryl iodides and heterocycles

The site-selective copper-catalyzed three-component coupling reaction of electron-deficient heterocycles, Se powder and aryl iodides is disclosed. The established methodology provides an efficient and practical pathway to access 2-arylselenated heterocycles via copper-catalyzed double C-Se bond formation. This transformation features the use of elemental Se as the selenating reagent, a cost-effective catalytic system, and the late-stage selenation of bioactive compounds.