Abstract: | Diethyl 6-amino-2-hydroxyazulene-1,3-dicarboxylate ( 6a ) and 2-acetoxyl derivative ( 6b ) were synthesized by reduction of the 6-azido derivatives ( 5a,b ) with zinc/acetic acid in excellent yields. 5a and 5b were prepared by azidation of diethyl 2-acetoxy-6-bromoazulene-1,3-dicarboxylate (4). Diazotization of 6a with sodium nitrite in the presence of concentrated sulfuric acid in dioxane gave diethyl 2-hydroxy- ( 7a ), 2,6-dihydroxy- ( 8a ), and 2-hydroxy-6-2-(2-hydroxyethoxy)ethoxy]-azulene-1,3-dicarboxylates ( 9a ), in 5, 35 and 20% yields, respectively. Similar reaction of 6b gave the corresponding acetates 7b, 8b , and 9b , compounds of the same type from 6a . No evidence for the formation of 6-diazo-1,3-diethoxycarbonyl-2(6H) azulenone ( 2b ) was obtained in the employed reaction conditions. |