Glycerol as a recyclable solvent for copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reactions of diaryl diselenides with aryl boronic acids

We describe herein the use of glycerol as the solvent in the copper-catalyzed cross-coupling reaction of diaryl diselenides with arylboronic acids using CuI and DMSO as additive. This cross-coupling reaction was performed with diaryl diselenides and arylboronic acids bearing electron-withdrawing and electron-donating groups, affording the corresponding diaryl selenides in good to excellent yields. The glycerol-CuI mixture can be directly reused for further cross-coupling reactions.