A convenient method for palladium-catalyzed reductive deuteration of organic substrates using deuterated hypophosphite in D2O.

A convenient method for the deuteration of organic substrates using deuterated hypophosphite as the deuterium source was investigated. Transfer deuteration of organic substrates, such as aromatic halides, alkenes, alkynes, epoxides, and O-benzyl derivatives, in the presence of palladium on carbon in deuterium oxide proceeded efficiently to give the corresponding deuterated products in excellent yields with high deuterium contents.