A 25 mL thick wall microwave tube equipped with a stirring bar was charged with p-anisidine (1.23 g, 10.0 mmol), KSF montmorillonite (1.0 g), and 4-tBu-phenyl acetylene (3.8 mL, 21.0 mmol) under N2 atmosphere. The tube was heated to 150 °C overnight with vigorous stirring. The reaction vessel was allowed to cool to room temperature before dilution with ethyl acetate and filtration. The solvent was removed from the mother liquor under reduced pressure, and the resultant green oil was purified via column chromatography with 50:50 dichloromethane and hexane, giving desired diene precursor a13 as a pale-yellow solid (2.8137 g, 6.4 mmol, 64% yield).