The general procedure for the synthesis of 2-chloro-4-trifluoromethylbenzyl alcohol from 2-chloro-4-trifluoromethylbenzoic acid was as follows: 2-chloro-4-trifluoromethylbenzoic acid (2.50 g) was added to a tetrahydrofuran solution (30 mL) containing sodium borohydride, and the reaction was stirred for 1 h at room temperature. Upon completion of the reaction, the reaction mixture was slowly poured into 1N hydrochloric acid solution and extracted with ethyl acetate. The organic phases were combined, washed sequentially with aqueous sodium bicarbonate and saturated brine, dried over anhydrous magnesium sulfate, and concentrated under reduced pressure to remove the solvent. The crude product obtained was purified by silica gel column chromatography with gradient elution using ethyl acetate-hexane (1:24 to 1:4, v/v) as eluent, and the target components were collected and concentrated under reduced pressure to obtain 2-chloro-4-trifluoromethylbenzenemethanol (2.23 g, yield: 96%), which was a colorless oil. Its 1H-NMR (300 MHz, CDCl3) data were as follows: δ 4.85 (2H, d, J = 9.0 Hz), 7.52-7.80 (3H, m).
