Ester hydrazones, from diazo esters

Diazo esters can also be prepared from glycine esters by treatment with nitrous acid [966] or with alkyl nitrites. Further methods include the oxidation of hydrazones, oximes (Forster reaction), and semicarbazones, the base-induced... 

In search of a convenient procedure for preparing diazo substrates for the cycloaddition to Cgg, Wudl introduced the base-induced decomposition of tosyl-hydrazones [116]. This procedure allows the in situ generation of the diazo compoimd without the requirement of its purification prior to addition to Cgg. Since they are rapidly trapped by the fullerene, even unstable diazo compounds can be successfully used in the 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition. In a one-pot reaction the tosyUiydrazone is converted into its anion with bases such as sodium methoxide or butylHfhium, which after decomposition readily adds to Cgg (at about 70 °C). This method was first proven to be successful with substrate 142. Some more reactions that indicate the versatility of this procedure are shown in Table 4.4. Reaction of 142 with CgQ under the previously described conditions and subsequent deprotection of the tert-butyl ester leads to [6,6]-phenyl-C5j-butyric acid (PCBA) that can easily be functionalized by esterification or amide-formation [116]. PCBA was used to obtain the already described binaphthyl-dimer (obtained from 149 by twofold addition) in a DCC-coupling reaction [122]. 

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