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Due to their ready availability in chiral form, and propensity to undergo regio-and stereoselective ring opening, aziridines have found widespread use in asymmetric synthesis. This review attempts to summarise the breadth of use of chiral aziridines in synthesis that has recently been reported. Particular emphasis is put on the effect of substituents on ring openings, rearrangements and use as chiral ligands and auxiliaries.

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Enantiomerically pure sulfinimines (thiooxime S-oxides 10), important building blocks in the asymmetric synthesis of amine derivatives, are prepared in good to excellent yields in one step from aromatic, heteroaromatic, and aliphatic aldehydes. This protocol involves treating commercially available (R)- or (S)-menthyl p-toluenesufinate (Andersen reagent 4) with LiHMDS, followed by the aldehyde, affording (E)-10 exclusively. The sulfinimines 10 are formed via a Peterson-type olefination reaction of silylsulfinamide anion 13 with the aldehyde. Anion 13 is generated by reaction of lithium menthoxide (12a) with bis(trimethylsilyl)sulfinamide 11, which is formed in the reaction of 4 with LiHMDS. The other product formed is O-(trimethylsilyl)menthol (12c), which is isolated in >80% yield for recycling. Two other less efficient methods for the asymmetric synthesis of 10 are discussed: (i) the asymmetric oxidation of sulfenimines 6 with chiral nonracemic oxaziridines and (ii) the reaction of metal aldimines, prepared from nitriles, with 4. All of these protocols fail with ketones.

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This account reviews our efforts over the past 37 years to understand the chemistry of a select group of sulfur-nitrogen compounds including sulfinimines (N-sulfinyl imines) and N-sulfonyloxaziridines. Our early exploration of the thermal properties of sulfenamides, a class of sulfur-nitrogen compounds about which little was known, resulted in a new procedure, the silver-assisted method, for the construction of sulfenimines (N-sulfenyl imines). Selective oxidations of these compounds resulted in the production of N-sulfinyl imines (sulfinimines) and N-sulfonyloxaziridines. N-Sulfonyloxaziridines turned out to be a new class of aprotic neutral oxidizing reagents. Enantiomerically pure examples afford high ee values in the oxidation of enolates to alpha-hydroxy carbonyl compounds and in the oxidation of sulfides and selenides to sulfoxides and selenoxides. Additions of organometallic reagents to enantiomerically pure sulfinimines provide the best and most versatile method for the asymmetric construction of the carbon-nitrogen stereocenters found in many biologically active compounds. Sulfinimine-derived chiral building blocks provide efficient access to many classes of nitrogen heterocycles including aziridines, 2H-azirines, pyrrolidines, and piperidines.