1-(chloromethyl)-4-(methylsulfonylmethyl)benzene

Conditions: temp:0.00; pressure:0.00; stir:; See reaction.notes.procedure_details.

Procedure: Triphenylphosphine (5.71 g, 21.8 mmol), carbon tetrachloride (8.4 mL, 87 mmol), and tetrahydrofuran (12 mL) were combined in a round bottom flask under argon and stirred at room temperature for 10 minutes. A heterogeneous mixture of (4-methanesulfonylmethyl-phenyl)-methanol (2.18 g, 10.9 mmol) and tetrahydrofuran (37 mL) were added to the reaction mixture, and then the mixture was heated at 75° C. for 3 hours. The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature, and then partitioned between ethyl acetate and water. The organic phase was dried over MgSO4, filtered, and concentrated to give the crude product as an oily solid. A solution of this crude product and dichloromethane was concentrated over silica gel, and the resulting silica gel supported crude product was loaded onto a RediSep® Flash column. Flash chromatography (25%-40% ethyl acetate in hexanes) afforded 1.59 g (67%) of 1-chloromethyl-4-methanesulfonylmethyl benzene as a white solid. 1H NMR (300 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ ppm 7.47 (d, J=8.2 Hz, 2 H), 7.41 (d, J=8.2 Hz, 2 H), 4.78 (s, 2 H), 4.50 (s, 2 H), 2.91 (s, 3 H). were added to the reaction mixture the mixture was heated at 75° C. for 3 hours The reaction mixture was cooled to room temperature partitioned between ethyl acetate and water The organic phase was dried over MgSO4 filtered concentrated to give the crude product as an oily solid A solution of this crude product and dichloromethane was concentrated over silica gel