A mixture of 2-chloro-5-fluoroanisole (0.52 ml, 4.10 mmol), benzophenone hydrazone (0.98 g, 5.00 mmol), sodium-tert-butoxide (561 mg, 5.80 mmol), in toluene (8.0 ml) was charged with Pd2(dba)3 (77.0 mg, 0.08 mmol) and 2-(di-t-butylphosphino)biphenyl (50.0 mg, 0.17 mmol) and heated to 80° C. under argon. The mixture was stirred overnight and checked with LCMS and TLC. The mixture was allowed to cool to room temperature and the reaction mixture was diluted with EtOAc (20 ml) and filtered. Material was used crude in the next step.
