In the presence of NH₄I as catalyst and m-chloroperbenzoic acid as oxidant, the Se–Se bond cleavage of diselenides undergoes smoothly. The in situ generated reactive electrophilic Se species reacts with alkenes quickly, and a series of β-hydroxy selenides are prepared in good yields. This new catalytic method for synthesis of β-hydroxy selenides is a stereospecific anti addition, which occurs with a Markovnikov orientation.

A novel and efficient procedure was developed for direct preparation of aryl-substituted lactones from corresponding aryl-substituted alkanoic acids, catalyzed by the in situ generated hypervalent iodine intermediate from iodobenzene (PhI). In this protocol, aryl-substituted alkanoic acids were treated with m-chloroperbenzoic acid (mCPBA) and KBr in the presence of a catalytic amount of PhI in 2,2,2-trifluoroethanol at room temperature for 24 h, resulting in corresponding aryl lactones in moderate-to-good yields.

A novel and efficient one-pot procedure was designed for the sulfonyloxylactonization of alkenoic acids by the reaction of alkenoic acids with m-chloroperbenzoic acid and sulfonic acids in the presence of a catalytic amount of ammonium iodide in a mixture acetonitrile/2,2,2-trifluoroethanol (4 : 1) at room temperature for 24 h, which provided the corresponding sulfonyloxy lactones in moderate-to-good yields.

The novel catalytic reaction for bromolactonization of alkenoic acids is reported. When iodobenzene is used as recyclable catalyst in combination with Oxone® as terminal oxidant, the cyclization of various 4-pentenoic acids with sodium bromide is easily carried out in CF₃CH₂OH at room temperature and giving five-membered bromolactones in good yields. J. Heterocyclic Chem., 2011.