Absolute asymmetric β-lactam synthesis via the solid-state photoreaction of acyclic monothioimides and the reaction trajectory in the chiral crystalline environment
photoreaction gave opticallyactive β-lactam. The dynamic molecularrearrangement for cyclization was elucidated on the basis of direct comparison of the absolute configuration of both the starting material and the photoproduct. Crystal-to-crystal transformation was observed in the photoreaction of the (E,E)-conformation of N-isopropyl-N-tigloylthiobenzamide, which needs small atomic rearrangement for the cyclization