General procedure for the synthesis of 4-bromophenylethanol from methyl 4-bromophenylacetate: Methyl 4-bromophenylacetate (6 g, 26.2 mmol, 1.0 eq.) was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF, 100 mL) and the solution was cooled to 0 °C. Lithium borohydride (LiBH4, 2M solution in THF, 1.41 g, 52.4 mmol, 2.0 eq.) was slowly added dropwise at 0 °C. After the dropwise addition, the reaction mixture was stirred at room temperature for 2 hours. After completion of the reaction, the reaction was quenched with water and extracted with ethyl acetate (EtOAc). The organic layers were combined, washed with saturated saline, dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate and concentrated under reduced pressure to afford the target product 4-bromophenethyl alcohol (4.5 g, 85.5% yield). The product was detected by LCMS, m/z: 204.8 [M + H]+. 1H NMR (400 MHz, DMSO-d6) δ 7.56-7.35 (m, 2H), 7.27-7.07 (m, 2H), 4.67 (t, J = 5.2 Hz, 1H), 3.58 (td, J = 6.8,5.4 Hz, 2H), 2.69 (t. J = 6.9Hz, 2H).
