Magnesium chips (5.37 g, 223.75 mmol, 3.0 eq.) were suspended in anhydrous tetrahydrofuran (60 mL) under argon protection and the reaction was initiated by the addition of iodine crystals (2) and 1,2-dibromoethane (2 drops). Subsequently, anhydrous tetrahydrofuran solution of 4-bromochlorobenzene (25.76 g, 134.39 mmol, 1.8 eq.) was slowly added dropwise for 1 h at room temperature. After the dropwise addition, the reaction mixture was continued to be stirred at room temperature for 1 hour. Next, anhydrous tetrahydrofuran (19 mL) solution of pyridine-2-carboxaldehyde (8 g, 74.68 mmol) was added dropwise at the same temperature, and stirring was continued for 2 hours after completion of the dropwise addition. Upon completion of the reaction, the reaction was quenched with saturated aqueous ammonium chloride solution and extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic phases were combined, washed sequentially with water and saturated saline, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate, filtered and concentrated under reduced pressure. Purification by silica gel column chromatography with 40% ethyl acetate/hexane as eluent afforded 12.26 g of (4-chlorophenyl)(pyridin-2-yl)methanol in 75% yield.ESI-MS: m/z 220 ([M+H]+).
