1-(Diphenylmethyl)azetidin-3-ol hydrochloride (2.75 g, 9.98 mmol), prepared using procedures similar to those described for Scheme 1 of the General Synthetic Section, 3 Å molecular sieves and 4-methylmorpholine (1.1 mL, 10.0 mmol) were suspended in dichloromethane (20 mL) at 0° C. 4-Methylmorpholine N-oxide (2.93 g, 25.0 mmol) and tetrapropylammonium perruthenate (140 mg, 0.399 mmol) were added and the mixture was stirred at ambient for 24 h. The mixture was filtered through a plug of silica using 5% triethylamine in ethyl acetate as eluent. The filtrate was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was partitioned between ethyl acetate and saturated sodium bicarbonate solution. The organic portion was washed with brine, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, filtered and concentrated in vacuo. Column chromatography (silica gel, 8:1 hexanes:ethyl acetate) gave 1-(diphenylmethyl)azetidin-3-one (871 mg, 3.68 mmol, 37% yield): 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): 7.50-7.46 (m, 4H), 7.33-7.27 (m, 4H), 7.27-7.19 (m, 2H), 4.59 (s, 1H), 4.01 (s, 4H); MS (EI) for C16H15NO: 238 (MH+).
