Highly diastereoselective dioxetane formation in the photooxygenation of enecarbamates with an oxazolidinone chiral auxiliary: steric control in the [2 + 2] cycloaddition of singlet oxygen through conformational alignment.

The photooxygenation of oxazolidinone-substituted enecarbamates leads to diastereomerically pure dioxetanes. The high diastereoselectivity is rationalized in terms of effective pi-facial control achieved by shielding one side of the double bond with the chiral auxiliary. The absolute configuration of the dioxetanes is assigned by derivatization to diols.