Base-mediated generation of ketenimines from ynamides: direct access to azetidinimines by an imino staudinger synthesis

Ynamides were used as precursors for the in situ generation of highly reactive ketenimines which could be trapped with imines in a [2+2] cycloaddition. This imino Staudinger synthesis led to a variety of imino-analogs of β-lactams, namely azetidinimines (20 examples), that could be further functionalized through a broad range of transformations