“…With the racemic β-aryl-γ-lactams ( 2a – f ) in hand, the next step was to explore the scope of ( S )-Naproxen as a resolution agent [26,27,28,29,30]. For this purpose, and after several attempts using Et 3 N/DMAP as base, we found that the reaction of the racemic β-phenyl-γ-lactam ( 2a ) with lithium diisopropylamide (LDA) in dry tetrahydrofuran at −78 °C, followed by the addition of ( S )-Naproxen acyl chloride 9 freshly prepared after reaction of ( S )-Naproxen with oxalyl chloride, produced the imides ( R , S )- 10a and ( S , S )- 10a as a diastereoisomeric mixture which, by careful separation by column chromatography, afforded the diastereoisomerically pure imides ( R , S )- 10a as minor polar and ( S , S )- 10a as more polar in 26% and 27% yield, respectively.…”