Direct N-H/ N-Me Aziridination of Unactivated Olefins Using O-(Sulfonyl)hydroxylamines as Aminating Agents.

Unactivated aziridines are the core substructures in a plethora of bioactive natural products and serve as building blocks in organic synthesis. Despite this, very limited methods are available to access them directly from olefins, as most of the known methods are devoted to their activated counterparts. Herein, we have developed a highly efficient Rh(II)-catalyzed method for the direct preparation of unactivated aziridines from olefins using O-(sulfonyl)hydroxylamines as the aminating agent. The reactions proceed with a high stereospecificity.