A suspension of tert-butyl 2-(4-aminocyclohexoxy)acetate (0.5 g, 1.7 mmol, 1 eq.), 1-bromo-4-(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)benzene (0.4 g, 1.7 mmol, 1 eq.), cesium carbonate (1.4 g, 4.3 mmol, 2.5 eq.), and BINAP (54 mg, 0.08 mmol, 0.05 eq.), in toluene (15 mL), was bubbled with nitrogen for 10 minutes before the addition of Pd(OAc)2 (19 mg, 0.08 mmol, 0.05 eq.) to the reaction mixture. Nitrogen gas was bubbled through the reaction mixture for another 10 minutes and the contents were heated at 100° C. under nitrogen atmosphere for 3 hours. The contents were cooled to room temperature, diluted with ethyl acetate, filtered through Celite®, and concentrated. The crude material was purified by silica gel column chromatography using ethyl acetate/heptanes to elute. The product containing fractions were combined and concentrated to obtain tert-butyl 2-[4-[4-(trifluoromethylsulfonyl)anilino]cyclohexoxy]acetate (0.73 g, 77%); (CI, m/z): [M+H]+ 438; 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): δ 7.74 (d, J=8.9 Hz, 2H), 6.56-6.70 (m, 2H), 4.44 (d, J=7.4 Hz, 1H), 4.02 (s, 2H), 3.32-3.49 (m, 2H), 2.07-2.25 (m, 4H), 1.44-1.55 (m, 11H), 1.21-1.35 (m, 2H).
