Notes From Group Meeting - 1

Today was our group meeting, and since it is also the end of the summer semester, the last one until Fall semester starts.  So no more of these for a couple of weeks.  That being said, there were a few things I learned today that I thought worth sharing.

First up is from one of our problem sets.  One professor, having not seen the problem before, said, "Ah yes, a Favorskii rearrangement!" I, of course, had never heard of it.  Turns out it was more complex than I expected and thought you ought to know about it.

Alexey Yevgrafovich Favorsky was a Russian chemist back at the turn of the century (the 19th to 20th turn, not the most recent one).  He was an accomplished scientist, and besides this rearrangement and one other reaction, his most notable achievement was receiving the Stalin award for improving synthetic rubber.

The Favorskii rearrangement is most commonly used to constrict ring, generally from a six member ring to a five member one.  The general mechanism is as follows:

With that in mind, can you figure this out? Click the picture for the answer.

Edit: Spelled "Favorskii" wrong