A mixture of 4-fluoro-2-bromomethyl-6-trifluoromethyl-benzoic acid methyl ester (0.100 g, 0.32 mmol), 3-fluoro-4-methyl-benzylamine (0.060 mL, 0.42 mmol), and K2CO3 (0.088 g, 0.64 mmol) in toluene (4 mL) was heated with stirring at 100° C. for 2 h. Workup and silica gel column chromatography using 30% ethyl acetate in hexane afforded 5-fluoro-2-(3-fluoro-4-methyl-benzyl)-7-trifluoromethyl-2,3-dihydro-isoindol-1-one (0.034 g, 31%). 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3): δ (ppm) 2.25 (s, 3H), 4.28 (s, 2H), 4.74 (s, 2H) 6.98 (t, 2H), 7.16 (t, 1H), 7.27 (d, 1H), 7.51 (d, 1H). GC-MS: m/z 341 (M)+, 320 (M−21)+.
