Copper‐Catalyzed Enantioselective [2+2] Cycloadditions of 2‐Nitrosopyridine with Ketenes

Copper(I)‐catalyzed [2+2] cycloadditions of various ketenes with 2‐nitrosopyridine to afford synthetically highly valuable 1,2‐oxazetidine‐3‐ones are shown to occur with good enantioselectivities. The thermal uncatalyzed process furnishes the unstable regioisomeric oxazetidinone. Density function theory (DFT) calculations give evidence that the reaction occurs via a concerted [2+2] cycloaddtion pathway.