Abstract
The physical and structural concepts concerning organochalcogen-based anisotropic organic metals are summarized, and the rationales which motivate synthetic activity in new selenium and tellurium materials are presented. An overview of our approach to new aromatic molecular and polymeric materials involving direct thermal reaction of new alkali chalcogenide reagents with unactivated aromatic halides is given, and recent applications to the synthesis of tetraselenonaphth-alene (TSeN) and new transition metal diselenolenes based on o-benzenediselenolate (bds) are noted. The crystal and molecular structures of TSeN and (nC4Hg)4N+ Ni(bds)2′ have been determined, as well as their electronic absorption and electron spin resonance spectra and cyclic voltammetric behavior. The reaction of cis-dichloroethylene and sodium diselenide leads to a polymer to which the repeat sequence ←Se-CH=CH-CH-CR-Se→ is assigned, based on elemental analysis and infrared spectrum.