Water → 5-Bromo-1,3-dichloro-2-(difluoromethoxy)benzene

To a solution of 2.3 g of 4-bromo-2,6-dichlorophenol in 25 mL of acetonitrile, 1.3 g of potassium carbonate and 3.8 g of ethyl bromodifluoroacetate were added and the resultant mixture was stirred while heating the mixture to reflux for 4 hours. After the completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was left to be cooled down to room temperature and charged into 100 mL of water and the resultant mixture was extracted with ethyl acetate (100 mL×1). The organic phase was washed with water and then dehydrated and dried over saturated saline and anhydrous sodium sulfate in this order and the solvent was distilled off under reduced pressure. The resultant residue was purified by silica gel column chromatography eluting with ethyl acetate-hexane (1:4) to obtain 2.4 g of the objective substance as a yellow oily substance.