An efficient and straightforward phosphine-promoted tandem
aza-Michael
addition/intramolecular Wittig reaction was developed for the synthesis
of polyfunctionalized 2-azetines. After demonstrating that this transformation
could be made catalytic in phosphine through in situ reduction of phosphine oxide with phenylsilane, different post-transformation
steps have been demonstrated, including an original [2 + 2] photodimerization.
Preliminary biological tests highlighted that these fluorinated 1,2-dihydroazete-2,3-dicarboxylates
exhibited significant cytotoxicity against the human tumor cell line.