Acylsilane Directed Rh-Catalyzed Arene C-H Alkylation with Maleimides and Visible-Light-Induced Siloxycarbene-Amide Cyclization: [3 + 2] Carbo-Annulation in Ru Catalysis.

We herein demonstrate the acylsilane-directed Rh-catalyzed arene C-H bond alkylation with maleimides. The resulting derivatives were utilized in visible-light-induced intramolecular siloxycarbene-amide cyclization for the synthesis of new tricyclic γ-lactams. In parallel, we also harnessed the same acylsilane and maleimide units through [3 + 2] carbo-annulation by using Ru-catalysis. A wide range of maleimides and aroylsilanes were used to establish the broadness of these transformations.