A degassed mixture of N-(2-bromo-6-nitrophenyl)acetamide (XCI) (4.8 g, 19 mmol, 1.00 eq), 2-(tributylstannyl)pyridine (XCVII) (7.5 g, 20 mmol, 1.05 eq) and Pd(PPh3)4 (2.1 g, 1.8 mmol, 0.01 eq) in toluene (60 mL) was heated to reflux under nitrogen overnight. Saturated sodium bicarbonate solution (50 mL) was then added to the mixture and it was extracted with ethyl acetate (50 mL×3). The combined organic layers were dried over Na2SO4, filtered and concentrated in vacuo, the residue was purified by column chromatography on silica gel (EtOAc:PE=1:2→100% EtOAc) to afford N-(2-nitro-6-(pyridin-2-yl)phenyl)acetamide (XCVIII) (4.4 g, 17.1 mmol, 92% yield) as a white-off solid. 1H NMR (DMSO-d6, 400 MHz) δ ppm 1.93 (s, 3H), 7.43-7.51 (m, 1H), 7.51-7.65 (m, 1H), 7.67 (d, J=7.6 Hz, 1H), 7.97 (dd, J=7.6 Hz, J=2.4 Hz, 3H), 8.75 (d, J=4.4 Hz, 1H), 10.52 (s, 1H); ESIMS found for C13H11N3O3 m/z 258 (M+H).
