To an ice bath cooled stirred solution of 1,1,1,3,3,3-hexamethyldisilazane (2.7 mL, 13 mmol) in tetrahydrofuran (5 mL) under nitrogen, was added a hexane solution of butyl lithium (2.5M, 4.8 mL, 12 mmol) via syringe. The ice bath was removed and the solution was stirred for 25 minutes at room temperature. This solution then was added dropwise to an ice bath cooled solution of 3-indanyloxy-4-methoxybenzaldehyde (2.68 g, 10.0 mmol) in tetrahydrofuran (4 mL) and the mixture was stirred for one hour. An ethereal solution of ethylmagnesium bromide (3M, 6.7 mL, 20 mmol) then was added dropwise via syringe. The reaction mixture was heated at reflux and was monitored by HPLC (Waters Nova-Pak/EC 18 column, 3.9×150 mm, 4 micron, 1 mL/min, 240 nm, 40/60, CH3CN/0.1% H3PO4 (aq)). After 48 hours the reaction had reached completion and was allowed to cool to room temperature. The reaction mixture then was slowly poured into a saturated solution of ammonium chloride (80 mL). The resulting mixture was extracted with methylene chloride (3×15 mL) and the combined extracts were dried over magnesium sulfate and concentrated to afford the product which was further purified by flash column chromatography (silica gel, 250/10/1, methylene chloride/methanol/ammonium hydroxide) to afford 0.27 g (9%) of product as an orange solid.
