Sultams are cyclic sulfonamides. Bioactive sultams include the antiinflammatory ampiroxicam and the anticonvulsant sulthiame. Sultams are prepared analogously to other sulfonamides, allowing for the fact that sulfonic acids are deprotonated by amines. They are often prepared by one-pot oxidation of disulfides or thiols linked to amines.Rassadin, V.; Grosheva, D.; Tomashevskii, A. Sokolov, V. "Methods of Sultam Synthesis" Chemistry of Heterocyclic Compounds 2013, Vol. 49, p39-65. 27. . An alternative synthesis of sultams involves initial preparation of a linear sulfonamide, followed by intramolecular C-C bond formation (i.e. cyclization), a strategy that was used in the synthesis of a sultam-based deep-blue emitter for organic electronics.
