0.87 g of potassium carbonate and 2.4 g of t-butyl 4'-bromomethylbiphenyl-2-carboxylate were added to a solution of 1.2 g of 4-acetyl-2-butyl-5-cyanoimidazole (prepared as described in Preparation 5) in 12 ml of N,N-dimethylacetamide, and the resulting mixture was shirred at room temperature for 3 hours. At the end of this time, the reaction mixture was diluted with 100 ml of ethyl acetate and washed with a saturated aqueous solution of sodium chloride. The aqueous layer was once again extracted with 50 ml of ethyl acetate, and the combined extracts were washed with a saturated aqueous solution of sodium chloride. The solvent was removed by distillation under reduced pressure, and the resulting residue was purified by column chromatography through silica gel, using a 3:1 by volume mixture of hexane and ethyl acetate as the eluent, to give 1.31 g of the title compound.
