A Gold Carbene Manifold to Prepare Fused γ‐Lactams by Oxidative Cyclisation of Ynamides

Gold‐catalysed oxidative cyclisation reactions of ynamides offer great promise in γ‐lactam synthesis but are limited by preferential over‐oxidation to form α‐keto imides. Evaluating the factors that might limit N‐cyclisation pathways led to effective gold‐catalysed conditions that allow access to different fused γ‐lactams on changing the ynamide N‐substituent and accommodate previously incompatible substitution patterns. New and efficient methods for the synthesis of functionalised 3‐aryl indoles and cyclohepta[c]pyrrol‐1‐one derivatives are presented. These conditions illustrate the complementarity of gold catalysis to other metals.