Energy saving and environment-friendly element-transfer reactions with industrial application potential

Herein we wish to propose the concept of “element-transfer reaction”, which may afford the access to elemental compounds by transferring certain elements from easily available resources efficiently, concisely and precisely. This review summarizes our staged research results on fluorine-, oxygen-, hydrogen- and selenium-transfer reactions and makes a prospect on the developing trend in the field. [Display omitted] Herein we wish to propose the concept of “element-transfer reaction”, which may afford the access to elemental compounds by transferring certain elements from easily available resources efficiently, concisely and precisely. A good element-transfer reaction with industrial application potential shall not generate waste and is performed under energy-saving and environment-friendly conditions. During the past decade, we have developed a series of methods for the synthesis of fluorine- and selenium-containing compounds via the fluorine- and selenium-transfer reactions, while the redox reactions were considered to be the oxygen- and hydrogen-transfer reactions as well and were also widely studied by our group for producing the high-value-added fine chemicals. Some of these technologies have been successfully industrialized. This review summarizes our staged research results on fluorine-, oxygen-, hydrogen- and selenium-transfer reactions and makes a prospect on the developing trend in the field.