(3) 1500 g of tert-butanol, 140 g of potassium hydroxide and 2-chloro-6-trifluoromethylpyridine prepared in step (2) were added to a 3 L reaction flask, heated up to 70 °C, and the reaction was held for 8 hours. After completion of the reaction, tert-butanol was removed by distillation under reduced pressure, 550 g of ethyl acetate and 550 g of water were added and mixed with stirring. The organic layer was washed with 370 g of saturated brine and dried by adding 100 g of anhydrous sodium sulfate. The ethyl acetate was removed by rotary evaporation to obtain 172.4 g of crude product; (4) The crude product prepared in step (3) was dissolved in 150 g of ethyl acetate, heated to 70 °C and stirred. 1200 g of petroleum ether was added slowly dropwise and the mixture was cooled to 2°C after the dropwise addition was completed, solid crystals were precipitated and the solid was collected by filtration. The solid was washed with 50 g of petroleum ether and dried at 70 °C to give 131.2 g of 2-hydroxy-6-trifluoromethylpyridine as a light yellow solid powder in 80.8% yield.
