Synthesis of Deuterated Enaminones with High Isotopic Fidelity

α-Substituted ketones or aldehydes can be synthesized from enamines by the Stork enamine reaction, named after its pioneer Gilbert Stork. Enamines are useful synthetic intermediates where the lone pair on nitrogen is in conjugation with the C=C bond. They resemble enolate ions, as the resonance forms of both species have a nucleophilic α carbon.

Enamine formation involves the addition of carbonyl compounds to a secondary amine through a series of reactions. The mechanism begins with the generation of carbinolamine, a nucleophilic attack followed by several proton transfer reactions. The hydroxyl group of the carbinolamine is converted into water to make a better leaving group that can push the reaction forward by eliminating a water molecule. In enamine formation, the last step involves the abstraction of a proton from the α carbon to...

Replacing each alpha-hydrogen in chloroethane by bromine (or a different functional group) yields a pair of enantiomers. Such protons are called prochiral or enantiotopic and are related by a mirror plane. Enantiotopic protons are chemically equivalent in an achiral environment. Because most proton NMR spectra are recorded using achiral solvents, enantiotopic hydrogens yield a single signal.
In chiral compounds such as 2-butanol, replacing the methylene hydrogens at C3 produces a pair of...

This lesson illustrates the role of deuterium substitution in simplifying the NMR spectrum of compounds comprising labile protons. One method employed is the use of deuterium. Amongst the three isotopes of hydrogen, deuterium (2H) has a nucleus composed of one proton and one neutron. When the D2O solvent is added to a pure dry ethanol solution, its labile proton is substituted with deuterium.

Primary amines react with carbonyl compounds—aldehydes and ketones—to generate imines. Imines consist of a C=N double bond and are named Schiff bases after its discoverer—the German chemist Hugo Schiff. On the other hand, secondary amines react with carbonyl compounds to give enamines. In enamines, the presence of a C=C double bond adjacent to the nitrogen atom leads to the delocalization of the lone pair.

This lesson delves into the aldol condensation catalyzed by bases, where aldols undergo dehydration to enals. As shown in Figure 1, the β-hydroxy aldehyde formed in a base-catalyzed aldol addition reaction dehydrates on heating to yield an unsaturated carbonyl product, which is commonly referred to as an enal.