Recent advances in the chemistry of vinylchalcogenides

Vinyl selenides, sulfides and tellurides surely represent important compounds in organic chemistry for their relatively easy accessibility and synthetic utility. More than the others vinyl selenides showed interesting biological activities such as the ability to reduce oxidative stress. New methods for the synthesis of vinyl thioethers have been developed in the last few years placing such compounds in a prominent position from an organic chemistry perspective. Tellurides are endowed with unique properties that make them suitable alternatives or precursors to organometallic species. The most recent and interesting examples about the chemistry of vinyl chalcogenides will be collected in this minireview.