Chiral recognition of organoselenium compounds: an update

Abstract

Chiral discrimination and stereochemical characterization are essential for understanding the properties and applications of asymmetric compounds. Although chiral organoselenium chemistry has expanded significantly over the past decades, particularly in the field of asymmetric synthesis, reliable and broadly applicable analytical protocols for evaluating chirality in these compounds remain limited. In this way, this review summarizes progress over the past decade in analytical techniques applied to the study of chirality in organoselenium compounds, with emphasis on chiral recognition and enantiodiscrimination strategies. The discussion focuses on circular dichroism, chromatographic methods, NMR-based approaches, fluorescence-based sensing, and X-ray crystallography. These methodologies have enabled the assessment of qualitative and quantitative enantiomeric interactions in selected selenium-containing systems. Despite these advances, this review highlights current strategies to explore chiral selenium interactions as well as limitations in chiral recognition in organoselenium chemistry.