A mixture of 5-bromo-2-naphthoic acid (2.12 g, 8.44 mmol), 1-methyl-4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)-1H-pyrazole (1.84 g, 8.86 mmol), and tetrakis(triphenylphosphine)palladium(0) (502 mg, 0.435 mmol) in a 250 mL round bottomed flask was evacuated and purged with nitrogen (in three cycles). Acetonitrile (40 mL) and 2M aqueous sodium carbonate (10 mL) were added to the mixture via syringe, and the mixture was heated under reflux under nitrogen for 22 hours. The reaction mixture was allowed to cool before the addition of 1M aqueous hydrochloric acid (30 mL) and it was then extracted with ethyl acetate (3×50 mL). The combined organic layers were dried (MgSO4), filtered, and concentrated in vacuo to provide a crude product (2.98 g after air drying). This crude material was dissolved in hot ethanol (150 mL) and filtered while hot to remove a yellow impurity (120 mg). The filtrate was concentrated in vacuo and the residue was recrystallised from dichloromethane (30 mL) to provide 5-(1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-2-naphthoic acid as a white solid (724 mg, 34%). A second crop of 5-(1-methyl-1H-pyrazol-4-yl)-2-naphthoic acid (527 mg, 25%) was obtained from the concentrated mother liquors by recrystallisation from dichloromethane (20 mL).
