Ring opening of 2-acylaziridines by acid chlorides

Abstract Good nucleophilicity of the ring nitrogen in chiral (2 R ,1′ R )-2-acyl-(1′-phenylethyl)aziridines initiated the reaction with various acid chlorides to form the corresponding acylaziridinium ion intermediates whose rings were opened by the chloride anion to yield the β-amino-α-chlorocarbonyl compounds. The subsequent displacement of the chloride with the internal oxygen nucleophile originated from methylchloroformate, acetyl chloride, and methyl chlorooxoacetate yielded oxazolidin-2-ones, β-amino-α-acetyloxypropionates, and morpholin-2,3-diones, respectively.