Benzyl Alcohol → 2-(Benzyloxy)-4-fluorobenzonitrile

Participants

Reaction Steps

Benzyl alcohol (13 mL, 125 mmol) was slowly added to a stirred suspension of NaH (95%, 2.86 g, 113 mmol) in toluene (200 mL) at room temperature. After 30 min, 2,4-difluorobenzonitrile (15.3 g, 110 mmol; Aldrich) was added all at once and stirring continued overnight (18 h). After this, the reaction mixture was washed with water (2×25 mL) and brine (25 ml). The organic layer was dried (Na2SO4), filtered and concentrated to give a white slurry which was triturated with hexanes and filtered to afford the title compound as a white solid (20.34 g, 81% yield). 1H NMR (500 MHz, CDCl3): 7.59–7.55 (1H, m), 7.45–7.34 (5H, m), 6.75–6.71 (2H, m), 5.19 (2H, s); 13C NMR (125.76 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ ppm: 71.16, 98.75, 101.54, 101.75, 108.66, 108.84, 115.83, 127.16, 128.58, 128.94, 135.03, 135.44, 135.54, 162.22, 162.31, 165.26, 167.29. LCMS calcd for C14H11FNO: 228.2; found: 228.0.

Provenance & Evidence