Trimethylsilyl azide, aziridine ring opening with

In another study, the reaction of trimethylsilyl azide, chloride, or iodide with /V-iosylaziridines in DMF opened the aziridine ring by attack at the least substituted carbon giving the trans product in high yield.47 However, when a phenyl group was on the aziridine ring, both possible products were obtained and attack at the benzyl carbon predominated. 

The p-amino-a-hydroxy esters have been converted to diamino acids [88, 89] and related compounds like the nitrogen-substituted azetidinone shown in Scheme 13, a key structure in the synthesis of the commercially available antibiotic loracarbef [90] by substitution of the alcohol moiety with an azide. Several approaches have been used to achieve this transformation. Mesylation of the alcohol followed by substitution with sodium or trimethylsilyl azide provided cis-diamino acids [88,89]. trans-Diamino acids were obtained by ring opening of the aziridine [88] or by inversion of the alcohol bearing carbon followed by substitution under Mitsunobo conditions [90]. 

The chiral (salen)Co catalysts have also been applied to cyclization reaction and preparation of intermediates for natural product synthesis [85]. In addition, chiral (salen)Ru catalysts proved to be effective for kinetic resolution of racemic epoxides [86]. Tridentate Schiff base Cr(III) complex (201) derived l-amino-2-indanol acts as a potent catalyst for asymmetric ring-opening reaction of meso-aziridines with trimethylsilyl azide (Scheme 16.60) [87]. The aziridine (200) was readily converted at —30 °C to the corresponding amino-azide in 95% yield with 94% ee. 

---