This study describes a single step, high yield and purity, ecofriendly and scalable procedure to prepare a selenium derivative (diethyl selenodiglycolate). Diethyl selenodiglycolate rapidly reduces hypochlorous acid (HOCl, second-order rate constant of 7 × 107 M−1 s−1) to generate its corresponding selenoxide. In activated HL-60 cells, diethyl selenodiglycolate selectively reacted with HOCl (half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) = 23.07 µM) but not with superoxide anion radical or hydrogen peroxide without any cytotoxicity. These results show that this synthetically simple selenide reacts in a very efficient and specific way with the harmful pro-oxidant HOCl being a promising compound to be applied in oxidative inflammatory-related conditions.

A thiourea derivative, N-[(phenylcarbonyl)carbamothioyl]benzamide, was synthesized and characterized by elemental analysis, thermal analysis, spectroscopic methods (Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), UV-Vis, Raman, matrix-assisted laser desorption-ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF), tandem mass spectrometry (MS/MS) and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)) and quantum-chemical calculations. The synthetic route was simple and efficient, conducted just by one-step and no purification step was needed. The compound crystallizes in a non-centrosymmetric orthorhombic crystal system with a P21 21 21 space group, with a= 5.06220(10) Å, b= 11.8623(3) Å, c= 21.9682(8) Å. The molecular conformation of the solid is stabilized by the N-H···O intramolecular hydrogen bond, which was present in the X-ray structure and was also found in the optimized geometry. The theoretical analysis showed that this strong interaction remains even when molecules are solvated, i.e., the rotation barrier and the hydrogen bond strength are greater than the solvent stabilization energy. In addition to this hydrogen bond effect, the relative position of phenyl groups has a certain influence on the chemical behavior of this thiourea and probably for other phenylthioureas.