A flexible and stereoselective synthesis of azetidin-3-ones through gold-catalyzed intermolecular oxidation of alkynes

Abstract

Chiral rings made easy: Chiral azetidin-3-ones have been easily prepared from chiral N-propargylsulfonamides, which in turn are readily accessible through chiral sulfinamide chemistry (see scheme). Using tert-butylsulfonyl as the protecting group avoids unnecessary deprotection and reprotection steps, and allows its removal from the azetidine ring under acidic conditions. Copyright © 2011 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.