Base‐catalyzed deuterium and tritium labelling of 1‐biphenyl‐4‐ylpropane‐1,2‐dione and deuteration of aryl methyl ketones

A synthesis and a base-catalyzed exchange reaction was developed under mild conditions to deuterate and subsequently tritiate the methyl group of the base sensitive diketone 1-biphenyl-4-ylpropane-l,2-dione depicted in Figure 1. Using Et3N as base, deuterium incorporation of the methyl group was 88.9% and the tritium incorporation gave a specific radioactivity of 119 mCi/mmol. The scope of the exchanges was extended to methyl aryl ketones 2–4. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.