A one-flask synthesis and characterization of novel symmetrical pyridyl monoselenides and X-ray crystal structure of bis(5-bromo-2-pyridyl) selenide and bis(2-bromo-5-pyridyl) selenide

The present work reports an efficient one-pot synthesis of symmetrical pyridyl monoselenides by the reaction of bromo-/iodopyridines with the isopropylmagnesium chloride, iPrMgCl followed by quenching with selenyl chloride, SeCl2. The current methodology constitutes a convenient synthesis of bis(5-bromo-2-pyridyl) selenide (I), bis(2-bromo-5-pyridyl) selenide (II) and bis(2,5-dibromo-3-pyridyl) selenide (III) under cryogenic conditions requiring shorter time duration to give satisfactory yields. The hitherto unknown compounds have been characterized by elemental analysis and various spectroscopic techniques i.e., 1H NMR, 13C NMR, FT-IR, mass spectrometry and X-ray crystallography.