Reaction Steps
To a 100-mL round bottom flask equipped with a magnetic stir bar was added tris(dibenzylideneacetone)dipalladium(0) (198 mg, 0.216 mmol, 0.02 equiv), 1,3,5,7-tetramethyl-8-phenyl-2,4,6-trioxa-8-phosphatricyclo[3.3.1.13,7]decane (152 mg, 0.519 mmol, 0.048 equiv, CYTOP® 292) 2,4,6-triisopropylphenylboronic acid (4.02 g, 16.2 mmol, 1.5 equiv) and potassium phosphate (6.89 g, 32.4 mmol, 3 equiv). The flask was purged with nitrogen for 30 minutes, then anhydrous, degassed tetrahydrofuran (20 mL) was added. The reddish slurry was stirred at room temperature for 30 minutes, and then degassed water (2 mL), and 1,2-dibromo-4,5-dimethoxybenzene (3.20 g, 10.8 mmol, 1 equiv) was added. The reaction was stirred at reflux for 21 hours. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature and then diluted with water (30 mL). The phases were separated and the aqueous layer was washed with ethyl acetate (3×20 mL). The combined organics were washed with brine (50 mL), dried over sodium sulfate, filtered, and concentrated on a rotary evaporator. The unreacted dibromoarene was removed by recrystallization from hot methanol. The product was further purified by column chromatography on an Isco CombiFlash system (120-g column; gradient: 1 column volumes heptane, ramp up to 98:2 heptane:ethyl acetate over 0.5 column volumes, hold at 98:2 for 2 column volumes, ramp up to 90:10 heptane:ethyl acetate over 7 column volumes, hold at 90:10 for 1 column volumes) to afford the title compound as a white solid (1.47 g, 99 area % by HPLC, 32% yield). 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3) δ ppm 7.13 (s, 1H), 7.05 (s, 2H), 6.69 (s, 1H), 3.94 (s, 3H), 3.81 (s, 3H), 2.96 (hept, J=7.0 Hz, 1H), 2.52 (hept, J=6.9 Hz, 2H), 1.32 (d, J=6.9 Hz, 6H), 1.20 (d, J=6.9 Hz, 6H), 1.07 (d, J=6.8 Hz, 6H). 13C NMR (100 MHz, CDCl3) δ ppm 148.0, 147.9, 147.6, 146.0, 135.3, 133.2, 120.5, 114.8, 114.8, 113.9, 56.2, 34.4, 30.9, 25.1, 24.3, 23.9.
