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Updated: Sep 16, 2026

Synthesis and Purification of Iodoaziridines Involving Quantitative Selection of the Optimal Stationary Phase for Chromatography
Published on: May 16, 2014
Stereocontrolled aziridination of imines via a sulfonium ylide route and a mechanistic study
Xiao-Fang Yang1, Ming-Jie Zhang, Xue-Long Hou
1State Key Laboratory of Organometallic Chemistry, Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 354 Fengling Road, Shanghai 200032, China.
Abstract:
The reaction of N-diphenylphosphinoyl imines 1 with [3-(trimethylsilyl)allyl]dimethylsulfonium bromide (5) in the presence of NaH at room temperature predominantly gave trans-vinylaziridines 4. On the other hand, cis-vinylaziridines 4 were the main products when the preformed ylide prepared from the reaction of [3-(trimethylsilyl)allyl]diphenylsulfonium perchlorate (6) was reacted with the same imines 1 at low temperature. trans-Aziridines were also obtained when imines 1 and sulfinimines 9 were reacted with N,N-dimethylacetamide-2-dimethylsulfonium bromide (7) in the presence of a base, respectively. A mechanistic study showed that the stereochemistry of these reactions was controlled by the reactivity of the imines and ylides. A higher reactivity of imines and ylides favors the formation of cis-aziridines, whereas a lower reactivity leads to trans-products.
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