Abstract
The 4,5-dihydro-5-(methyIthio)-2-phenyl-1,3-thiazoles 3a and 3b, easily prepared from the corresponding 1,3-thiazol-5(4H)-thiones and MeLi, react with dichloroacetyl chloride (5a) and acidoacetyl chloride (5b) in the presence of Et3N to give (methylthio)penam derivatives 6 (Table 1). The reaction mechanism is either a [2+2] cycloaddition of in situ generated ketene or a two-step reaction (Scheme 2). The structure of 6f has been confirmed by X-ray crystallography (Fig. 2). The relative configuration of 6a-e follow from comparison of their 1H-NMR spectra with those of 6f (Fig. 1). The 6-azidopenams 6d and 6f have been reduced to aminopenams 8a and 8b, respectively. Acylation of 8a with phenacetyl chloride yields 9 (Scheme 4 ).