Efficient and convenient heterogeneous palladium-catalyzed regioselective deuteration at the benzylic position.

The Pd/C-catalyzed efficient and regioselective hydrogen-deuterium (H-D) exchange reaction on the benzylic site proceeded in D2O in the presence of a small amount of H2 gas. The use of the Pd/C-ethylenediamine complex [Pd/C(en)] as a catalyst instead of Pd/C led to the efficient deuterium incorporation into the benzylic site of O-benzyl protective groups without hydrogenolysis. These H-D exchange reactions provide a post synthetic and D(2)-gas-free deuterium-labeling method on a wide variety of benzylic sites using D2O as the deuterium source and heterogeneous Pd/C or Pd/C(en) as a reusable heterogeneous palladium catalyst under mild and neutral conditions.