2-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-2-methylpropanenitrile

Conditions: temp:0.00; pressure:0.00; stir:

Conditions: temp:100.01; pressure:0.00; stir:; See reaction.notes.procedure_details.

Procedure: 2-(2,6-Dichlorophenyl)-2-methylpropanenitrile (20 g, 93 mmol) and 4-bromo-2-fluoroaniline (28.4 g, 149 mmol) were dissolved in anhydrous o-xylene (200 mL) and heated to 100° C. under N2. Trimethylaluminum (2 M) in toluene (140 mL, 280 mmol) was added drop-wise (˜0.9 mL per minute) over 2.5 hours while the reaction mixture was stirred at 100° C. After addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at 100° C. for 30 minutes, and then cooled to −5° C. The reaction mixture was very carefully quenched with potassium sodium tartrate (20 g in 100 mL water) (Caution: gas and heat formation). The reaction mixture was filtered through Celite 545. The filtrate was washed with 1N HCl (4×70 mL). The aqueous was neutralized with 2N NaOH and extracted with EtOAc (4×100 mL). The organics were combined, washed with brine, dried with Na2SO4, and concentrated on a rotary evaporator to afford 24 g of crude product. The crude product was recrystallized with 72 mL of MTBE and 240 mL of hexane to give N-(4-bromo-2-fluorophenyl)-2-(2,6-dichlorophenyl)-2-methylpropanimidamide (17.5 g, 43.3 mmol, 46.4% yield) as a white solid (purity: 99%). 1H-NMR (MeOD, 400 MHz) δ 7.42 (d, 2H, J=8.0 Hz), 7.30 (m, 2H), 7.16 (t, 1H, J=8.0 Hz), 6.93 (t, 1H, J=8.0 Hz), 2.11 (s, 6H); 13C-NMR (DMSO-d6, 100 MHz) δ 166.5, 156.1, 153.7, 140.6, 138.5, 135.9, 131.4, 128.6, 128.0, 125.7, 119.5, 112.9, 50.0, 29.2; MS m/e 403.09 (M+H+); HPLC (XBridge 5μ C18 4.6×50 mm, 4 mL/min, Solvent A: 10% MeOH/water with 0.2% H3PO4, Solvent B: 90% MeOH/water with 0.2% H3PO4, gradient with 0-100% B over 4 minutes): 2.32 minutes. After addition the reaction mixture was stirred at 100° C. for 30 minutes cooled to −5° C The reaction mixture was very carefully quenched with potassium sodium tartrate (20 g in 100 mL water) (Caution: gas and heat formation) The reaction mixture was filtered through Celite 545 The filtrate was washed with 1N HCl (4×70 mL) extracted with EtOAc (4×100 mL) washed with brine dried with Na2SO4 concentrated on a rotary evaporator to afford 24 g of crude product The crude product was recrystallized with 72 mL of MTBE and 240 mL of hexane