Potash (7.5 g, 54.3 mmol) and Pd(PPh3)4 (1.6 g, 1.4 mmol) were added to a solution of 4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)indan-1-one 34 (7.0 g, 27.1 mmol) and 4-chloro-3-nitroanisole (5.1 g, 27.1 mmol) in a mixture of dioxane (80 mL) and water (20 mL). The mixture obtained was heated to 80° C. under argon, kept at this temperature for 16 h (TLC monitoring, eluent: hexane-ethyl acetate, 1:1), cooled, filtered through Celite, evaporated, and dissolved in CH2Cl2. Then the mixture was filtered off from the insoluble portion, evaporated with silica gel, and purified on a short thick column with silica gel (eluent: hexane-CH2Cl2 100:0→0:100, CH2Cl2-ethyl acetate 100:0→50:50). Yield of 35: 5.59 g. The product was used in the next step without additional purification.
