Ethyl Acetate → Ethyl 2-(5-methoxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-yl)acetate

An oven dried flask was charged with sodium hydride (60 wt %) (173 mg, 4.32 mmol) and THF (15 mL) and cooled to 0° C. Triethyl phosphonoacetate (0.864 mL, 4.32 mmol) was added dropwise and the reaction was then heated to 50° C. for 1 hr. The reaction was then cooled to 0° C., and 5-methoxy-1-indanone (500 mg, 3.08 mmol) was added via cannula in THF (3×5 mL). The reaction was then refluxed for 17 hours. Next, the reaction was cooled to room temperature and diluted with ethyl acetate (50 mL). The organic layer was washed with water (2×50 mL) and brine (50 mL), dried over sodium sulfate, filtered, and concentrated. The residue was dissolved in ethanol (15 mL) and 10% palladium on carbon (150 mg) was added. The reaction was stirred at room temperature under an atmosphere of hydrogen (balloon) for 17 hours. At this point, the catalyst was removed by filtration, and the filtrate was concentrated. Purification of the residue via flash chromatography on silica gel (0 to 40% ethyl acetate/hexanes) afforded ethyl (5-methoxy-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-yl)acetate. 1H NMR (CDCl3, 500 MHz) δ 7.07 (d, J=8.5 Hz, 1H), 6.78 (s, 1H), 6.71 (dd, J=8.2, 2.3 Hz, 1H), 4.18 (m, 2H), 3.78 (s, 3H), 3.53 (m, 1H), 2.95-2.65 (m, 3H), 2.45-2.30 (m, 2H), 1.76 (m, 1H), 1.28 (t, J=7.2 Hz, 3H).