Decarboxylative selenylation of carboxylic acids: a reliable strategy for the synthesis of selenoethers.

Decarboxylative cross-coupling reactions have emerged as powerful and highly significant transformations for the construction of carbon-carbon and carbon-heteroatom bonds, benefiting from the use of stable, abundant, and cost-effective carboxylic acids as readily accessible coupling partners. These processes offer attractive alternatives to conventional cross-coupling or addition reactions that rely on organometallic reagents. Building on this strategy, a variety of methods have been developed for the synthesis of synthetically and biologically relevant selenoethers through decarboxylative selenylation of carboxylic acids, thereby overcoming key limitations associated with traditional synthetic approaches that typically depend on organometallic reagents. This review summarizes recent advances in these reactions, with particular emphasis on mechanistic aspects. For clarity, the review is organized into five sections based on the type of carboxylic acids. Accordingly, selenodecarboxylation of aliphatic carboxylic acids is presented first, followed by alkenyl acids, alkynyl acids, and (hetero)aromatic carboxylic acids. Finally, available examples of selenodecarboxylation of α-keto acids are discussed at the end of the review.