A simple and efficient method to convert elemental selenium into alkali metal diselenide was developed. The use of selenium and metal borohydride in a molar ratio of 1 to 0.125 in the presence of base, under "on water" conditions and ultrasound activation permitted the reduction of Se into Se2 2to be completed within minutes. Thus obtained metal diselenide aqueous solution was then used in the multigram scale synthesis of 2,2'-diselenobis(benzoic acid) (DSBA) a valuable building block for the development of diverse and pivotal selenorganic compounds.

The continuous flow synthesis of the key building block 2,2′-diselenobis(benzoic acid) (DSBA) and its analogues is herein reported.

In this work, we present a simple way to achieve 4-arylselanyl-1H-1,2,3-triazoles from selenium-containing carbinols in a one-pot strategy. The selenium-containing carbinols were used as starting materials to produce a range of selanyl-triazoles in moderate to good yields, including a quinoline and Zidovudine derivatives. One-pot protocols are crucial to the current concerns about waste production and solvent consumption, avoiding the isolation and purification steps of the reactive terminal selanylalkynes. We could also isolate an interesting and unprecedented by-product with one alkynylselenium moiety connected to the triazole.

This manuscript aims to be a celebrative tribute to the 200 th anniversary of "selenium birthday" presenting an overview of the contribute of our group in different fields of this research, ranging from the development of new reagents for green chemistry and catalysis to the design and synthesis of novel molecules as anti-HIV and, as recently reported by others, antimicrobial agents. We are strongly convinced that in the next future important discoveries could emerge as a result of a research that produces thousands of new publications every year. In the form of prospective article here we just collect selected results among those presented by our young students at 6 th Workshop of the SeSRedCat Network which was held in Wroclaw, Poland (21 th 23 rd September 2017) Selenium (Se) was named by J. J. Berzelius exactly 200 years ago after its discovery in the residue of sulfuric acid preparations from a mining operation. At the beginning Berzelius believed to have in his hands a sample of Tellurium (discovered some years before) and only at the beginning of 1818 further investigations on the redox properties demonstrated that it was a new element and the name Selenium