We study the adsorption and ring-opening of lactide on the naturally chiral metal surface Pt(321)(S). Lactide is a precursor for polylactic acid ring-opening polymerization, and Pt is a well known catalyst surface. We study, here, the energetics of the ring-opening of lactide on a surface that has a high density of kink atoms. These sites are expected to be present on a realistic Pt surface and...

A highly regioselective SN2-type ring opening of 2-aryl-N-tosylaziridines with carbonyl compounds in the presence of a Lewis acid to afford various 1,3-oxazolidines and 1,2-amino alcohols in excellent yields and moderate to high enantioselectivity is described. The formation of non-racemic products provides convincing evidence for the SN2-type ring opening mechanism. 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All righ...