Non-Diazo C-H Insertion Approach to Cyclobutanones through Oxidative Gold Catalysis.

Cyclobutanones are synthetically versatile compounds that often require extensive effort to access. Herein, we report a facile synthesis of cyclobutanones based on the C(sp3 )-H insertion chemistry of oxidatively generated gold carbenes. Various cyclobutanones were obtained in synthetically useful yields from substrates with minimal structural prefunctionalization. This discovery reveals new synthetic utilities of gold-catalyzed oxidative transformations of alkynones.