Reactions involving inorganic compounds

Selenium chemistry became, over the last 30 years, particularly useful for synthetic organic chemistry [1]. Inorganic as well as organic selenium comp ounds allow transformation which otherwise cannot be done or require much m ore drastic conditions to proceed. We have over the last 25 years explored the reactivity of elemental selenium as well as its inorganic and organic d erivatives. We report here our recent finding concerning (i) organic disele nols and -diselenolates and (ii) the role of selenoxides in the enantiosele ctive dihydroxylation of C,C double bonds using catalytic amounts of osmium tetroxide.