Step 1: Under nitrogen protection, 4-bromophenethyl alcohol (5.0 g, 25 mmol), pinacol ester of bisboronic acid (7.6 g, 30 mmol), potassium acetate (4.88 g, 49.7 mmol), and PdCl2 (dppf) (0.91 g, 1.2 mmol) were dissolved in 1,4-dioxane (100 mL). After purging the reaction mixture with nitrogen, it was stirred at 85°C for about 12 hours. After the reaction was completed, it was cooled to room temperature, diluted with water (100 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (2 x 100 mL). The organic layers were combined, washed with saturated aqueous NaCl (100 mL), dried over anhydrous Na2SO4, filtered and concentrated under reduced pressure. The residue was purified by rapid chromatography on silica gel (17% EtOAc/petroleum ether). The target fraction was collected and concentrated under reduced pressure to give 2-(4-(4-(4,4,5,5-tetramethyl-1,3,2-dioxaborolan-2-yl)phenyl)ethanol (6.2 g, 100% yield). NMR (400MHz, CDCl3) δ 7.78 (d, J=7.9Hz, 2H), 7.29-7.23 (m, 2H), 3.87 (t, J=6.6Hz, 2H), 2.90 (t, J=6.6Hz, 2H), 1.36 (s, 12H).
