The above prepared 1-chloroethyl benzyl(methyl)carbamate was dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (5 mL) and then 5-(tetradecyloxy)furan-2-carboxylic acid (0.180 g, 0.544 mmol), tetrabutylammonium hydroxide pentahydrate (0.209 g, 0.60 mmol), and sodium iodide (˜15 mg) were added to the reaction vessel. The resulting suspension was heated to 60° C. with stirring for 14 hrs. HPLC analysis of the reaction solution indicated that all of the starting material had been converted to a product of lower polarity. The reaction was then quenched with brine (5 mL), water (5 mL) and EtOAc (70 mL). The organic phase was washed successively with water (30 mL) and brine (30 mL) and then dried and concentrated. The resulting crude material was purified by flash chromatography eluting with EtOAc in hexanes, 5-20% to yield 0.120 g (43%) of the title compound as a slightly brown oil. 1H NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) δ: 7.15-7.40 (m, 6H), 7.05 (p, 1H), 5.30 (d, 1H), 4.40-4.60 (m, 2H), 4.10 (t, 2H), 2.85 (d, 3H) 1.7-1.9 (m, 2H), 1.79 (p, 2H), 1.55-1.62 (m, 3H), 1.18-1.50 (m, 22H), 0.89 (t, 3H).
