Reactions of endohedral metallofullerenes with azomethine ylides: an efficient route toward metallofullerene-pyrrolidines

Azomethine ylides, generated from the reactions of different aldehydes (RCHO) 1a–d with sarcosine, reacted with endohedral metallofullerenes M@C82 (M = Gd, Y) affording multi-substituted metallofulleropyrrolidines. The formation of these derivatives was confirmed by matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) time-of-flight (TOF) mass spectrometry and some of them were isolated by recycling HPLC.