“…21 However, for the reduction of some less-electronphilic functional groups, the reducibility of NaBH 4 needed to be enhanced by combining with transition metal catalysts. 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Indeed, NaBH 4 combined transition metal such as Fe, 31 32 33 Co, 34 35 Ni 36 37 and Cu 38 39 are available for reducing nitroaromatics to the corresponding aromatic amines, nevertheless, these metal catalysts are associated with one or more problems such as necessity of using metal nanoparticles and was not commercially available, no assess the substrate scope, and poor selectivity, as it did in the case of the process development of vilazodone, of which the key intermediate ethyl 5-nitrobenzofuran-2-carboxylate ( 1a ) is envisioned to be reduced by NaBH 4 during our project development .…”