Studies On the Development of a New Chiral 2-Pyrrolidinone Synthon

Previous results from this laboratory have showed that N,O-dibenzylated malimide 1 is a versatile intermediate for the asymmetric synthesis of pyrrolidines, 2-pyrrolidinons and β-hydroxy-γ-amino acids^[1-4]. All the reactivities showed in synthon A have been exploited, in order to extend our studies on the (S)-malic acid-based synthetic methodology, we were interested to study the synthon B.To this end,sulfone 2 and 3,two the potential synthetic equivalent to synthon B, were prepared from malimide 1. Preliminary results showed that sulfone 2 indeed displayed the reactivity of synthon B.