A mixture of 3-(6-chloro-pyrazin-2-yloxymethyl)-benzonitrile I-3f (667.2 mg, 2.716 mmol), piperazine (297 mg, 3.531 mmol), sodium t-butoxide (287 mg, 2.987 mmol), BINAP (67.7 mg, 0.109 mmol), and Pd2(dba)3 (49.7 mg, 0.054 mmol) in toluene (10 mL) was heated at 90° C. overnight. The solution was cooled to room temperature and filtered through a celite pad. The celite pad was washed with ethyl acetate several times. The combined filtrate was concentrated in vacuo to give the crude title compound. The product was purified by chromatography (silica, 10% MeOH/dichlormethane with 1% NH4OH) to give 180 mg 3-(3,4,5,6-tetrahydro-2H-[1,2′]bipyrazinyl-6′-yloxymethyl)-benzonitrile (3-E).
