Preparation of Enantiomerically Pure C76 with a General Electrochemical Method for the Removal of Di(alkoxycarbonyl)methano Bridges from Methanofullerenes: The Retro-Bingel Reaction

Serendipitously discovered during electrochemical investigations on the stability of anion 1, a preparatively useful electrochemical procedure, the retro-Bingel reaction, has been identified as a method for removing di(alkoxycarbonyl)methano bridges from methanofullerenes. This procedure was applied to prepare the first samples of enantiomerically pure D2-C76 with unambiguous optical purity.