Full Characterization and some reactions of 1‐(2‐adamantyl)‐3‐(1‐adamantyl)aziridin‐2‐one

We found that 1‐(2‐adamantyl)‐3‐tert‐butylaziridin‐2‐one ( 5a ) is unstable. It slowly decomposes at room temperature, although detectable by IR spectroscopy (1840 cm^?1 band in CCl₄). On the other hand, a closely related analogue, 1‐(2‐adamantyl)‐3‐(1‐adamantyl)aziridin‐2‐one ( 5b ), is very stable, in concurrence with an earlier report 1]. We fully characterized aziridinone 5b , identified its thermal decomposition products ( 7 and 8 ) and reacted it with two aprotic ionic (tBuO^? and HO^?) and one protic non‐ionic nucleophile (benzylamine). All three products ( 9b , 10 , and 11 ) result from exclusive cleavage of the lactam (1‐2) bond.