The invention discloses a synthetic method of an
enzalutamide intermediate 4-amino-2-
trifluoromethyl benzonitrile, which comprises the following steps: by taking a compound in a formula (II) as a
raw material, dissolving the compound in a
solvent A together with a free radical source A, a free
radical initiator A and a photocatalyst A, and reacting under an illumination condition to obtain a compound III; mixing the compound (III) with
acetic acid and tert-
butyl nitrite, reacting in the absence of a
solvent or a
solvent B, and then adding tert-butyl isonitrile for reacting to obtain a compound (IV); and dissolving the compound (IV), a ligand C, organic alkali and
nickel hexammine
chloride in a solvent C, and reacting under the illumination condition to obtain the target product 4-amino-2-
trifluoromethyl benzonitrile as shown in the formula (I). The reaction process is as follows: the
substituent X in the formula is
chlorine or
bromine. According to the method, 4-bromoaniline or 4-chloro-
aniline which is low in price and easy to obtain is taken as a starting
raw material, and
trifluoromethyl is directly introduced into a
benzene ring by adopting photocatalytic free radical
trifluoromethylation, so that the method conforms to the green chemical principle, and amino protection and deprotection steps are avoided.