A degassed mixture of 6-bromo-2-(methylthio)-1,3-benzothiazole (4.20 g, 16.14 mmol), tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) (186 mg, 0.161 mmol) and benzylzinc bromide (0.5 M in THF, 61.34 mL) was heated at 60° C. for 4 hrs. EtOAc (200 mL) was added and the organic layer was washed with saturated, aqueous NaHCO3 (3×150 mL), then water (3×150 mL). The organic layer was dried over MgSO4 and concentrated. The crude material was purified by ISCO® chromatography using 4% EtOAc in hexane to obtain the desired product (1.50 g, 28%). 1H NMR (400 MHz, acetone-d6) δ 8.20 (s, 1H), 7.88 (d, 1H), 7.62 (d, 1H), 7.44-7.30 (m, 5H), 4.44 (s, 2H); LC-MS m/z [M+H]+ 304.2 & 306.1, RT 4.02 min.
