Potassium Carbonate → [4-(3,4-Dichlorobenzyl)morpholin-2-yl]methylamine

To a stirred solution of Intermediate 2 (2.97 g) in methanol (15 ml) and water (5 ml) was added potassium carbonate (5.53 g). The mixture was stirred at 22° C. for 18 h before the methanol was removed in vacuo. Water (25 ml) was added and the mixture extracted with ethyl acetate (3×30 ml). The combined organic phases were washed with water (5 ml) and saturated aqueous sodium chloride solution (10 ml) before drying over sodium sulphate, filtering and evaporation of the solvent in vacuo to give a pale yellow oil. The oil was purified by Biotage flash chromatography on a 90 g silica cartridge eluting with 75:8:1 dichloromethane/ethanol/0.880 ammonia solution. The required fractions were combined and the solvent evaporated in vacuo to give the title compound as a colourless oil (1.85 g).