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 that 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.