Time-resolved compression of a capsule with a cone to high density for fast-ignition laser fusion.

The advent of high-intensity lasers enables us to recreate and study the behaviour of matter under the extreme densities and pressures that exist in many astrophysical objects. It may also enable us to develop a power source based on laser-driven nuclear fusion. Achieving such conditions usually requires a target that is highly uniform and spherically symmetric.

A fluorous-tagged linker from which small molecules are released by ring-closing metathesis.

A fluorous-tagged linker for the parallel synthesis of small- and medium-ring and macrocyclic nitrogen heterocycles using ring-closing metathesis is described. The linker was designed such that "cyclization-release" of the cyclic heterocyclic products was coupled with liberation of the active catalyst. The design of the linker was validated using a non-fluorous-tagged model.

Boronate titanium alkylidene reagents for diversity-based synthesis of benzofurans.

[reaction: see text] Novel titanium benzylidenes (Schrock carbenes) bearing an arylboronate group are generated from thioacetals with low valent titanium species, Cp(2)Ti[P(OEt)(3)](2), and alkylidenate Merrifield resin-bound esters to give enol ethers. Treatment with 1% TFA gives 2-substituted (benzo[b]furan-5-yl)boronates, and solid-phase Suzuki cross-coupling gives 2,5-disubstituted benzofurans. Steps in the syntheses of thioacetal substrates include selective lithiation-boronation, hydrolysis of a MOM group without affecting a boronate ester, and cross-coupling with bis(pinacolato)diboron.

Synthesis of 2-substituted benzofurans and indoles using functionalized titanium benzylidene reagents on solid phase.

Titanium(IV) benzylidenes bearing a masked oxygen or nitrogen nucleophile in the ortho position were generated from thioacetals, using low-valent titanocene complex, Cp2Ti[P(OEt)3]2. Methylene acetal, alkyl ether, silyl ether, fluoro, tertiary amino, and N-alkyl, N-benzyl, N-prenyl, and N-silyl tert-butyl carbamate groups were tolerated in the titanium alkylidene reagents (Schrock carbenes). Aryl-chlorine bonds were stable to the titanium benzylidene functionality, but there was poor chemoselectivity for the reduction of the thioacetal in the presence of an aryl chloride.