Step B: 2-chloro-3-nitrophenol (1.3 g, 7.49 mmol) was dissolved in N,N-dimethylformamide (DMF, 10 ml), to which milled cesium carbonate (2.92 g, 8.96 mmol) was added, followed by dropwise addition of iodomethane (1.4 ml, 22.5 mmol). The reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature overnight. After completion of the reaction, DMF was removed by distillation under reduced pressure, the residue was dissolved in ether (150 ml), the organic phase was washed sequentially with water (150 ml) and saturated saline (4 x 100 ml) and then dried with anhydrous magnesium sulfate. After filtering to remove the drier, the organic phase was concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain the crude 2-chloro-3-nitroanisole (1.38 g, yield 98%) as an orange solid.
