2-(5-Bromo-2-methoxy-phenyl)-[1,3]dioxane (40 mmol), di-n-butylamine (48 mmol), Pd2(dba)3 (0.2 mmol, 1 mol % Pd), P(o-tol)3 (0.6 mmol) and Na-t-OBu (68 mmol) was stirred in degassed toluene (60 mL) at 80° C. for 18 h. The darkbrown mixture was poured into icecold hydrochloric acid (1 M, 200 mL) and stirred vigorously for 2 hours at 25° C. The solution was cooled to 0° C. and pH was adjusted to 9 using 6M NaOH(aq) and extracted with Et2O (4×100 mL). The organic phase was dried (Na2SO4) and the solvent was removed under reduced pressure. The resulting crude oil purified by flash chromatography using EtOAc/n-heptane (1:4, v/v) as eluent. The product was isolated as yellow oil in 46% yield.
