0.33 g (8.3 mmol) of 60% sodium hydride was stirred in 50 ml of N,N-dimethylformamide at room temperature while 0.7 g (9.2 mmol) of isopropyl mercaptan was added dropwise. After generation of hydrogen was over, 3.0 g (8.1 mmol) of 1-chloro-5-(2,6-dichloro-4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-2-nitrobenzene was added, and the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 12 hours. The reaction mixture was poured into about 200 ml of ice-cold water and extracted with 50 ml of ethyl acetate twice. The ethyl acetate was washed with 100 ml of water twice and dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate, and the ethyl acetate was distilled off under reduced pressure. Purification of the residue by silica gel column chromatography afforded 3.0 g of [5-(2,6-dichloro-4-trifluoromethylphenyl)-2-nitrophenyl]isopropyl sulfide (yield 90.0%) as a yellow dough (nD20 1.5881).
