2-(Hydroxymethyl)-6-methoxynaphthalene (9) 4 was care-fully converted to the bromomethyl compound 10 with hydrogen bromide and the highly reactive intermediate 10 was treated with sodium cyanide to provide 6-methoxy-2-naphthaleneacetonitrile (1 1) in good yield. We first reported this compound, without experimental details, as an example for our procedure for deblocking aromatic methyl esters2. An alternate synthesis of 11 has recently been p~ ...
