A solution of 6-ethynyl-4,4-dimethyl-1,2,3,4-tetrahydronaphthalene-1-one (Intermediate 13, 0.23 g, 1.1 mmol) and ethyl-4-iodo benzoate (Reagent A, 0.36 g, 1.3 mmol) in triethyl amine (7 mL) and anhydrous tetrahydrofuran (3 ml) was treated with copper(I)iodide (0.114 g, 0.6 mmol) and sparged with argon for 5 minutes. Dichlorobis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(II) (0.23 g, 0.33 mmol) was added and the reaction mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature. It was diluted with diethyl ether and filtered over a bed of celite. The filtrate was evaporated in vacuo to a brown oil that was subjected to flash column chromatography over silica gel (230-400 mesh) using 6-7% ethyl acetate in hexane as the eluent to afford the title compound (0.29 g, 72%) as a pale brown solid.
