Ring Expansions of Nonactivated Aziridines and Azetidines

Ring expansions promoted by ring strain in aziridines and azetidines are reviewed in this chapter, putting emphasis on recent applications from the last decade. This vast subject cannot be surveyed here exhaustively, and the reader will be guided to relevant precedent reviews or key reports. Rather, special attention will be put on selected examples and their mechanistic details, aiming to demonstrate that high selectivity can be reached in these reactions. In this issue, this fast-growing topic has been divided into two distinct chapters, this one dealing with “nonactivated” aziridines and azetidines. Therefore, the reader will only find here examples involving NH- or N-alkylaziridines and N-azetidines as substrates for ring expansions, while N-acyl, N-carbamoyl, or N-tosyl compounds, defined as “activated” substrates, will be presented in the next chapter. This distinction can appear quite arbitrary at first sight but is amply justified by the great difference in reactivity of these distinct substrates. The first part focuses on the ring expansions of nonactivated aziridines into up to seven-membered rings and is further divided into expansions involving the incorporation of one (or more) heteroatoms, followed by ring expansions involving only incorporation of carbon atoms. The same model is then followed for azetidines.