Migration of the phosphoryl group in the photochemical and thermal Wolff rearrangement

For the study of the rearrangement the authors prepared methyl 2-diazo-3-(diisopropoxyphosphinyl)-3-oxopropinoate by the diazo-transfer method. By the same method they prepared methyl 2-diazo-3-(diethoxyphosphinyl)-3-oxopropioinate. Unlike its carbonyl analog, the first compound proved to be extremely unstable. In vacuum distillation or chromatography on silica gel it decomposes. The structure of the ester was proved by elemental analysis and methods of 1H and 31P NMR spectroscopy