Carbonyldiimidazole (CDI) was found to mediate the Lossen rearrangement of various hydroxamic acids to isocyanates. This process is experimentally simple and mild, with imidazole and CO(2) being the sole stoichiometric byproduct. Significant for large-scale application, the method avoids the use of hazardous reagents and thus represents a green alternative to standard processing conditions for the Curtius and Hofmann rearrangements.

N-Mesyloxylactams undergo an efficient ring-contraction to N-heterocycles of various ring sizes. Yields increase with the degree of substitution α to the carbonyl. The stereochemical information of a chiral migrating carbon is conserved making this reaction a synthetically useful complement to the well-known Hofmann, Curtius, Lossen, and Schmidt rearrangements.

N‐Mesyloxylactams can undergo ring contraction either by C‐3 (usually observed) or C‐5 migration. C‐5 migration can occur when the C‐3 migration product possesses ring strain, but it does not usually compete with C‐3 migration. The greater preference for C‐3 migration is due to the carbonyl oxygen atom, which greatly stabilizes the intermediate.

The photochemical rearrangement of N-activated lactams enables their ring contraction concomitant with the migration of a carbon onto a nitrogen atom. When coupled with the Beckmann rearrangement, this photochemical ring contraction converts cycloalkanones into N-heterocycles in a few steps and in a stereospecific manner. To showcase the method, we performed an efficient formal synthesis of (-)-gephyrotoxin 287C.

Cyclic hydroxamic acids can undergo a thermal ring contraction after an in situ triflation. High yields of ring-contraction products are obtained with DBU when the migrating carbon is a methylene, while best results are obtained with Et(3)N for the migration of quaternary carbons. In some cases, the regiochemical outcome of the reaction can be controlled by changing the base. This novel thermal rearrangement complements a similar but photochemical rearrangement of N-mesyloxylactams.