An oxidative Wittig-type reaction was developed. The classical Wittig reaction is one of the most powerful synthetic tools for construction of carbon–carbon double bonds from carbonyls, but here comes a surprising version, in which carbonyl groups are installed by similar process. The mechanism shows that the reaction is mediated by an oxo-four-membered intermediate, which looks like a humorous face. More information can be found in the communication by X. Jia and co-workers on
page 617 in Issue 5, 2016 (DOI:
10.1002/ajoc.201600055).