2.2.2. (E)-Methyl-3-methoxy-2-(2-phenoxyphenyl)acrylate (**3**)

A mixture of intermediate **2** (1.00 g, 4.13 mmol), arylboronic acid (1.23 g, 5.37 mmol), Pd(PPh3)<sup>4</sup> (0.24 g, 0.21 mmol) and K3PO<sup>4</sup> (2.63 g, 12.40 mmol) was dissolved into a mixture of 6 mL dioxane and 2 mL water, and this mixture was stirred under nitrogen atmosphere at 90 ◦C for 10 h. Then, the reaction mixture was cooled down, poured into ice water (100 mL) and extracted with EtOAc (30 mL) twice. The mixture was dried using anhydrous sodium sulfate and the solvent was evaporated under vacuum. Next, the residue was purified by silica gel column chromatography (1:8 EtOAc /hexane) to obtain **4** (white solid, 1.56 g, 90.3%).
