COUPLING OF MOLECULAR UNITS BY DESELENIZATION OF SELENOCARBONYL OUNDS

of the Invention Organic molecules can be coupled via their selenocarbonyl derivatives. Generally, the synthesis can be described by the following reaction equation: where can be a cyclic or heterocyclic organic compound and R can be alkoxy, phenoxy or phenyl, preferably CH3O, C2H5O, C6H5O, C6H5 and the like. The reaction is usually carried out in a refluxing solvent, the choice of the solvent being determined by the stability and by the ease of coupling of a particular substrate. Groups that tend to stabilize the selenocarbonyl require higher boiling solvents and longer refluxing times. Aromatic solvents, such as benzene or toluene are well-suited for the coupling reaction. In some cases, refluxing the substrate in the alkoxy-phosphorus base as solvent may be advantageous. This new coupling procedure permits the synthesis of the hitherto unknown compounds: tetraselenofulvalene (TScF), the selenium analogue of tetrathiofulvalene (TTF), and disolenodithiofulvalene (DSeDTF). Highly conducting char?e transfer salts of tetraselenofulvalere and diselenodithiofulvalene with totracyano-p-quinodimethane have also been prepared. The materials of this invention are useful in the organic electronic devices described the United States Patent No. 3,953,874, issued April 27, 1970, to Arieh Aviram et al. and assigned to the same assignee as is the present application.