A simple synthesis of truxene, a building block for optoelectronics and fullerene fragments

Truxene was efficiently synthesized by reduction of truxenone with excess hydrazine hydrate in diethylene glycol at 180 °C without added base, a variation of the Huang-Minlon Wolff–Kishner reduction. The proposed mechanism highlights hydrazine as a nucleophile and a base, extracting protons from the hydrazone and diazene intermediates.