Acetonitrile → 3-(2-Bromophenyl)propanenitrile

Into a 500-mL 3-necked round-bottom flask, was placed a solution of acetonitrile (49 g, 1.20 mol, 9.96 equiv) in tetrahydrofuran (150 mL). This was followed by the addition of BuLi (72 mL, 1.50 equiv) dropwise with stirring at −78° C. Stirred at −78° C. for 1 h. To this was added a solution of 1-bromo-2-(bromomethyl)benzene (30 g, 120.00 mmol, 1.00 equiv) in tetrahydrofuran (100 mL) dropwise with stiffing at −78° C. The resulting solution was stirred for 1 h at −78° C. The reaction was quenched by the addition of 100 mL of water at −78° C. The resulting aqueous solution was extracted with 3×100 mL of ethyl acetate and the organic layers combined and dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated under vacuum. The residue was applied onto a silica gel column with ethyl acetate/petroleum ether (1:20). The crude product was purified by distillation under reduced pressure (2 mm Hg) and the fraction was collected at 98-107° C. This resulted in 13.21 g (52%) of 3-(2-bromophenyl)propanenitrile as colorless oil.