Ethyl 2-(2,5-difluorophenyl)acetate (2.64 g, 13.2 mmol) was used as a raw material and dissolved in ethanol (50 mL). To this solution, sodium borohydride (1.0 g, 26 mmol) was added in batches at room temperature and stirred until the reaction mixture gradually changed to a clarified solution. After continued stirring for 30 min, the reaction mixture was cooled in an ice water bath and the reaction was quenched by slow addition of 1.0 N aqueous hydrochloric acid solution. Subsequently, the reaction mixture was concentrated and the residue was extracted by partitioning with ethyl acetate and water. The organic phase was washed sequentially with saturated aqueous sodium bicarbonate and brine, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated. Finally, the residue was purified by silica gel column chromatography (eluent: hexane/ethyl acetate = 20/1) to afford 2,5-difluorophenylethanol as a colorless oil (1.6 g, 80% yield). The structure of the product was confirmed by 1H NMR (400 MHz, CDCl3): δ 7.02-6.94 (m, 2H), 6.92-6.85 (m, 1H), 3.88 (q, J = 6.4 Hz, 2H), 2.90 (t, J = 6.4 Hz, 2H).
