2-Phenoxyethanol derived diselenide and related compounds; synthesis of a seven-membered seleninate ester

Syntheses of several diorganodiselenides and, in particular, a seven-membered cyclic seleninate ester derived from 2-phenoxyethanol are described. The seleninate ester was obtained from allyl (2-(2-hydroxyethoxy)phenyl) selenide through a series of oxidation and [2,3] sigmatropic rearrangement steps. The ester exhibits good GPx-like activity in the coupled reductase assay.