Michael additions of hydrazones for carbon–carbon bond formation

Abstract

The lithium salts of t-butyl-and trityl-hydrazones react with methyl crotonate to form C-trapped azo-esters and similar products were observed from a thermal ene-reaction of aldehyde t-butylhydrazones with methyl acrylate or acrylonitrile, and aldehyde phenylhydrazones with methyl acrylate; these products can be diverted into synthetically useful γ-keto-esters, γ-keto-nitriles, saturated esters, γ-alkyl-2-pyrrolidones, and γ-amino-esters.