A novel way to chiral 2-oxazolidinones: selenium-catalyzed cyclocarbonylation of 2-aminoethanols

Selenium-catalyzed cyclocarbonylation of 2-aminoethanols with CO under atmospheric pressure at 30 °C afforded 2-oxazolidinones in excellent yields without any other co-catalyst. The method was then applied to the syntheses of chiral 2-oxazolidinones and no racemization was detected.