“…In the same way, spiro-fused β-lactams 2b,c and amides 3b,c together with recovered starting materials were obtained from 1,5-benzothiazepines 1b,c (Entries 4 and 5, Table 1). In our previous investigation, 23,24,27 the reaction of 2,4-disubstituted 2,3-dihydro-1,5-benzothiazepines 1 with monosubstituted ketenes, generated from substituted acetyl chlorides in the presence of triethylamine gave β-lactam derivatives in good to excellent yields. The lower yields of β-lactams 2 in the current cases are possibly due to steric hindrance of the disubstituted ketene, pentamethyleneketene,…”