• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.493-498
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• 2001

An efficient and eco-friendly approach to N-unsubstituted ${\beta}-lactams$ has been developed using mostly water as the reaction medium. This methodology was applied to the synthesis of N-unsubstituted 3-hydroxy-4-phenyl-2-azetidinone derivatives (inclu ding 15N-labeled version) which are suitable precursors for the C-13 side chain of taxol and its analogs.