4-Methoxyphenol → 1-Methoxy-4-(4-methylphenoxy)benzene

Participants

Reaction Conditions

Reaction Steps

4-methoxy phenol (18 g, 0.145 mol) was taken into anhydrous dioxane (250 mL). 4-iodotoluene (47.42 g, 0.217 mol), cesium carbonate (94.49 g, 0.29 mol), N,N-dimethylglycine HCl (1.97 g, 0.014 mol), and copper iodide (0.966 g, 0.005 mol) were added to the solution. The reaction was heated to 90° C. for 12 h under nitrogen, with mechanical stirring. The reaction was concentrated to dryness and the residue was partitioned between water and ethyl acetate. The aqueous layer was washed with ethyl acetate (4×). The ethyl acetate was washed with brine, dried over sodium sulfate and concentrated to dryness. The crude product was purified by flash chromatography (10:1 silica ratio, eluted with 3% ethyl acetate in hexane) to obtain the title product (23.50 g, 0.1097 moles, 76% yield). 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6); δ 2.26 (s, 3H), 3.73 (s, 3H), 6.82 (d, J=8.8, 2H), 6.94 (s, 4H), 7.14 (d, J=8, 2H).

Provenance & Evidence