Tetrabutylammonium cyanide (20 mol %) catalyzes ring expansion of 4-(arylimino)methylazetidin-2-ones 2 to 5-aryliminopyrrolidin-2-ones 3 through a novel N1-C4 bond cleavage of the beta-lactam nucleus. New, efficient one-pot protocols to enantiopure succinimide derivatives 3 and 4 from beta-lactam aldehydes 1 have also been developed. [reaction: see text]

Molecular iodine (10 mol%) efficiently catalyzes the ring expansion of 4-oxoazetidine-2-carbA C H T U N G T R E N N U N G aldehydes in the presence of tert-butyldimethylsilyl cyanide, or allylic and propargylic trimethylsilanes to afford protected 5-functionalized-3,4-dihydroxypyrrolidin-2-ones with good yield and high diastereoselectivity, through a C3 À C4 bond cleavage of the b-lactam nucleus. Interestingly, in contrast to the iodine-catalyzed reactions of 3-alkoxy-b-lactam aldehydes which lead to the corresponding g-lactam derivatives (rearrangement adducts), the reactions of 3-aryloxy-b-lactam aldehydes under similar conditions gave b-lactam-fused chromanes (cyclization adducts) as the sole products, through exclusive electrophilic aromatic substitution involving the C3 aromatic ring and the carbaldehyde. In order to support the mechanistic proposals, theoretical studies have been performed.

The cyanosilylation of enantiopure 4-oxoazetidine-2-carbaldehydes with tert-butyldimethylsilyl cyanide was promoted by either molecular sieves or catalytic amount of sodium carbonate to give O-silylated beta-lactam cyanohydrins with good yield and diastereoselectivity. In contrast, Lewis acids did not effectively promote the cyanosilylation under different experimental conditions, and instead hydrocyanation took place affording the corresponding free cyanohydrins in variable yield and selectivity. Starting from beta-lactam cyanohydrin hybrids, two concise, complementary stereocontrolled routes to optically pure orthogonally protected anti,anti-4-amino-3,5-piperidine diols were achieved. Key features of the first approach include chemoselective reductive opening of the beta-lactam ring with LiBH4 to a 3-amino-5-hydroxy pentanenitrile followed by reductive cyclization of a conveniently functionalized cyanomesylate derivative with NaBH4/NiCl2. The second approach involves LiAlH4 reduction of protected anti,anti-4-amino-3,5-dihydroxypiperidin-2-ones, which were easily obtained by chemoselective reduction of the cyano group in the beta-lactam cyanohydrin hybrids with NaBH4/NiCl2 and subsequent intramolecular rearrangement of the resulting amino beta-lactams. Both routes make use of an oxidative N-dearylation with diacetoxyiodobenzene of a 4-methoxyphenylamino group as a common synthetic step. Specifically, the utility of this novel reaction sequence has been demonstrated by the synthesis of fully orthogonally protected sialidase inhibitors.