Enantioselective Synthesis of Cyclopropanone Equivalents and Application to the Formation of Chiral β-Lactams

Cyclopropanone derivatives have long been considered unsustainable synthetic intermediates because of their extreme strain and kinetic instability. Reported here is the enantioselective synthesis of 1-sulfonylcyclopropanols, as stable yet powerful equivalents of the corresponding cyclopropanone derivatives, by α-hydroxylation of sulfonylcyclopropanes using a bis(silyl) peroxide as the electrophilic oxygen source. This work constitutes the first general approach to enantioenriched cyclopropanone derivatives. Both the electronic and steric nature of the sulfonyl moiety, which serves as a base-labile protecting group and confers crystallinity to these cyclopropanone precursors, were found to have a crucial impact on the rate of equilibration to the corresponding cyclopropanone. The utility of these cyclopropanone surrogates is demonstrated in a mild and stereospecific formal 3+1] cycloaddition with simple hydroxylamines, leading to the efficient formation of chiral β-lactam derivatives.