A Novel Method to Prepare Sodium Dise lenide and Organic Diselenides

This paper described a novel method t hat is in alkaline protonic solvent (water or ethanol)to prepare sodium diselenide with a 8:1molar ratio of selenium to sodium borohydride,then to syn-thesize organic diselenides.Compared with the reaction in neutral solu tion described in literature,this method has advantages as below.(1)To prepare same amount of diselenide,the amount of NaBH4in alkaline solution is only 1/8of th at in neutral solution.(2)The reaction proceeded mildly with no injurious gas forming.(3)The operation is convenient and safe.(4)The obtained Na 2Se2solution can be utilized directly to synthesize diselenides with higher yields.