It was proposed to study the cycloaddition of ketenes and carbodiimides in some detail. The first objective was to investigate the general applicability of the reaction as a tool for the synthetic organic chemist in the preparation of a new class of substituted β-lactams; i.e., imino-β-lactams. It was proposed for this part of the research problem to look for the intermediate, either directly or indirectly, by trapping experiments. It was further proposed to study substituent effects in the ketene and carbodiimide and also Investigate the effect of solvent polarity on the reaction rate. From these data, it was hoped that the mechanism of the cycloaddition reaction could be elucidated.

The initial purpose of this study was to determine if steric problems would account for the difference in the products obtained in the reaction of the N-(substituted)phthalimide with low and high molecular weight amines.