Multideuteration of Nitroaromatics by Silver-Catalyzed Hydrogen-Isotope Exchange

J Org Chem. 2023 Feb 3;88(3):1560-1567. doi: 10.1021/acs.joc.2c02618. Epub 2023 Jan 12.

Abstract

Silver-catalyzed deuteration of nitroaromatics has been achieved using D2O as the deuterium source. Distinct from the well-established directing group-guided hydrogen-isotope exchange, this protocol showed an interesting deuteration pattern, where considerable deuterium accumulation was observed around the aromatic rings. Controlling experiments suggested that the deuteration was initiated by a silver-promoted C-H activation. Therefore, a tentative two-stage deuteration mechanism involving aryl-silver species was proposed to explain the deuteration on meta- and para-positions.