>Nowadays β-lactam antibiotic is the most valuable antibiotic, with a crucial structural feature of a four-membered β-lactam ring. The design and synthesis of these compounds, and their stereochemical characteristics, have become one of the frontier fields in organic synthesis. By virtue of its unique structure and diverse properties, ferrocenyl derivative has wide applications to biological and medical fields. Therefore, the ferrocene-modified β-lactam is a class of compounds with a novel structure as well as potentially biological activity. The in-depth investigation of these compounds will provide a significant guidance for the development of new antibiotics. Herein the research progress in synthesis and biological activity of two types of β-lactam derivatives containing ferrocene moiety in recent years is mainly summarized, which are ferrocenyl derivatives of penams and cephems and of monocyclic β-lactams, respectively.

Key words: β-lactam, ferrocene, antibiotic, biological activity